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CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 



CHINA AND THE 
FAR EAST 

CLARK UNIVERSITY LECTURES 



EDITED BY 

GEORGE H. BLAKESLEE 

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, 
CLARK UNIVERSITY 




NEW YORK 

THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 

PUBLISHERS 






Copyright, 1910 
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. 



Published, March, iQio 



©Ci.A259605 



PREFACE 

The following chapters were first delivered as ad- 
dresses during the recent second decennial celebration of 
the founding of Clark University. Under the general 
direction of the President, Dr. G. Stanley Hall, each 
Department arranged for a gathering of specialists who 
should give a series of lectures upon topics of present in- 
terest in its special field. The Department of History 
held a conference upon China and the Far East. The 
aim was two-fold: first, to emphasize the importance of 
presenting in school and college work the leading features 
of the development of the Eastern world — a subject that 
better illustrates the working of the laws of history, 
and is of more vital importance to the civilization of to- 
day, than much that forms the subject matter of the 
usual history courses ; second, to do its part in furthering 
a more general and accurate knowledge of Far Eastern 
conditions. 

During the nineteen sessions of the conference, the 
lectures and papers of the forty-five authorities who took 
part in the meetings covered nearly every aspect of the 
situation in the Orient — political, social, economic, 
military, educational and religious. It was the original 
intention to publish all of the proceedings in a single 
volume, but as this would make the work of unwieldy 
size, it was decided to exclude the shorter addresses, to- 
gether with all the material upon the Philippines and 
India, and to publish only certain of the more formal 
papers upon China, Japan and Korea. Each of the 
present chapters deals with a distinct topic ; together they 
cover progressively the field of what is both most inter- 



iv PREFACE 

esting and most vital in the situation of China and Korea 
at least. Several of the addresses upon the Philippines 
and India will be published in the early numbers of a 
new journal soon to be issued at Clark University, which 
will deal with the problems connected with the attempts 
to extend western civilization to peoples less highly 
developed. 

The Department wishes to express its grateful rec- 
ognition of the kindness of those who, by their papers 
and lectures, made the conference a success. It is be- 
lieved that the interest in these meetings upon the Far 
East has been so genuine that it will warrant the Uni- 
versity in holding a similar conference each succeeding 
autumn. 

" The Problem of the Pacific," said President Taft 
this summer, " is the greatest problem now before the 
American people." This volume is given to the public 
in the hope that it may be of some service in helping to 
present the facts, in accordance with which America must 
attempt to do her part in solving this problem. It is, 
too, our most earnest and sincere wish, that these chap- 
ters may help to bring about a more sympathetic under- 
standing of Far Eastern peoples; an appreciation that, 
after all, in the essentials of Hfe, in their faults and 
their virtues, they are much like ourselves ; and a rec- 
ognition that, with all of their other qualities, they have 
much of strength and manliness and nobility. 

George H. Blakeslee. 
Clark University^ Worcester Massachusetts, 
January 5, 1910. 



CONTENTS 
I 

PAGE 

Introduction xi 

Dr. George H. Blakeslee. 



The Position of China in World Politics . 

Dr. Archibald C. Coolidge, Professor of History in 
Harvard University, Vice-President of the East 
Asiatic Club, and author of " The United States as 
a World Power." 



II 

"^A Sketch of the Relations between China 

and the Western World 21 

Hon. Chester Holcombe, formerly Acting Minister 
to China, and author of " The Real Chinaman " and 
" The Real Chinese Question." 

Ill 

\A. Sketch of the Relations between the 
United States and China 47 

Dr. F. W. Williams, Professor of Modern Oriental 
History in Yale University, author (v^^ith S. W. 
Williams) of " The Middle Kingdom " and " China 
and Japan." 



vi CONTENTS 

IV 

. PAGE 

The Need of a Distinctive American Policy 
IN China 83 

Mr. T. F. Millard, author of "The New Far East" 
and " America and the Far Eastern Question." 



V 



The History and the Economics of the 
Foreign Trade of China 95 

Mr. H. B. Morse, formerly of the Imperial Chinese 
Customs Service, decorated by the Chinese Em- 
peror, author of " The Trade and Administration 
of the Chinese Empire." 



VI 

■^America's Trade Relations with China . . 109 

Mr. John Foord, Secretary of the American Asiatic 
Association. 

VII 
Monetary Conditions in China 121 

Dr. J W. Jenks, Professor of Political Economy 
in Cornell University, Special Commissioner of the 
War Department, United States, to Investigate Chi- 
nese Finance. 



CONTENTS vii 

VIII 

> PAGE 

'^ The Present SituatioiNt in Manchuria — Com- 
merce, Trade, and International Politics , 133 

Mr. Willard Straight, recently Consul-General at 
Mukden. 

IX 

The Opium Problem — Its History and Present 
Condition 149 

Dr. Hamilton Wright, Representative of the United 
States at the recent International Opium Con- 
ference at Shanghai. 

X 

The Chinese Army — Its Development and 
Present Strength 177 

Major Eben Swift, General Stafif, United States 
Army. 

XI 

Conditions, Favorable and Otherwise, in 
China's Development 187 

Dr. Amos P. Wilder, Consul-General at Shanghai. 

XII 
The Chinese Student in America .... 197 

Mr. H. F. Merrill, of the Imperial Chinese Cus- 
toms Service, Supervisor of the Chinese Students 
in the United States, decorated by the Chinese 
Emperor. 



viii CONTENTS 

XIII 

The New Learning of China — Its Status and 
Outlook 223 

Dr. D. Z. Sheffield, President of Union College, 
Tungchou, North China. 

XI\^ 

The History of Christian Missions in China 245 

Professor Harlan P. Beach, of Yale University, 
author of " Dawn on the Hills of T'ang " and 
" Geography and Atlas of Protestant Missions." 

XV 

The Progress of Religious Education in China 277 

Dr. Edward C. Moore, Parkman Professor in 
Harvard University. 

XVI 

The Chinese in Hawaii — An Example of Suc- 
cessful Assimilation 295 

Mr. A. F. Griffiths, M. A., President of Oahu Col- 
lege, Honolulu. 

JAPAN 

XVII 

Japan's Relation to China 317 

Dr. Kan-Ichi Asakawa, of Yale University, author 
of " The Russo-Japanese Conflict " and " The Early 
Institutional Life of Japan." 



CONTENTS ix 

XVIII 

PAGE 

Japan and the United States 351 

Dr. Jokichi Takamine, President of the Nippon 
Club, New York. 

XIX 

The Strength and Efficiency of the Japanese 
Army 359 

Major Eben Swift, General Staff, United States 
Army. 



KOREA 

XX 

The Awakening of Korea ...... 369 

Hon. Horace N. Allen, formerly Envoy Extraordi- 
nary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the United 
States to the Kingdom of Korea, decorated by the 
Korean Emperor, author of " Foreign Relations 
of Korea " and " Korea, Fact and Fancy." 

XXI 

The Japanese Administration in Korea . . 397 

Professor George Trumbull Ladd, LL. D., Yale 
University, decorated by the Japanese Emperor, 
author of " In Korea with Marquis Ito." 



X CONTENTS 

XXII 
Religious Conditions in Korea . . . . . 437 

Rev. Ernest F. Hall, of the Presbyterian Mission, 
Korea. 



PAGE 



INTRODUCTION 

" The Pacific Ocean, its shores, its islands, and the vast 
region beyond, will become the chief theater of events in 
the world's great Hereafter" — this was a prophecy of 
William H. Seward, fifty years ago. In our own time, 
Theodore Roosevelt has expressed the same belief : " The 
Mediterranean era," he says, " died with the discovery 
of America. The Atlantic era is now at the height of 
its development and must soon exhaust the resources at 
its command. The Pacific era, destined to be the great- 
est of all, ... is just at the dawn." 

If this be true, if the Pacific is to be the center of the 
world's interest, then whatever vitally affects the coun- 
tries on the Asiatic side of the Pacific — the lands which 
make up the Far East — ^must be of fundamental im- 
portance in the development of the worldJs civilization. 
And there is a movement of vital importance taking place 
in the Far East : there is a change going on which con- 
stitutes an epoch of much the same significance in the 
Orient as was the period of the French Revolution in 
the history of Europe. The Far East is coming to the 
stage of constitutional self-government. This means 
that each of the great countries of that part of the world 
will eventually control at least its own local affairs ; and 
control them by a government in which the people shall 
express themselves by constitutional methods. 

This advance is merely in accord with the natural law 
of political evolution, as is clearly shown by the history 
of Europe. From the fall of the Roman empire to the 



xii INTRODUCTION 

present day, Europe, as a whole, has passed through 
three quite distinct stages of government: first, feudal- 
ism; then, absolutism; and finally, constitutionalism. 

When the Roman empire was overthrown by the Ger- 
man tribes in the fourth and fifth centuries, chaos was 
the result ; but chaos soon came to be tempered by feud- 
alism, which has been well called " organized anarchy." 
During the following and seemingly stagnant centuries 
of the Middle Ages there was a very slow improvement 
in all that goes to make up civilization. Commerce and 
industry developed; learning was extended; cities came 
into existence ; until finally the picturesque castle and the 
mailed knight no longer satisfied the governmental needs 
of the existing society. Europe had simply outgrown 
feudalism ; it had come to need above all else a strong 
central power which should establish order and assure 
protection. So feudalism was replaced by absolutism. 
This change began in many of the countries of Europe 
about the middle of the fifteenth century, and is as- 
sociated with such rulers as Henry the VIII. in England, 
Louis the XL and the XIV. in France, and Charles the 
V. and Philip the II. in Spain. 

After kings had crushed feudalism and become 
well-nigh absolute, Europe still continued to develop, 
until, after some three centuries it no longer needed an 
unrestrained power to enforce order. Absolutism was 
in turn outgrown. The people were at last ready to con- 
trol their own destinies and direct their own rulers. So 
constitutionalism came in. In England it was an unusu- 
ally early growth, but continental Europe received its 
constitutions from the impulse of the French Revolu- 
tion. 

A little over a century ago, then, there was not a 
single leading power in continental Europe which had 
a constitutional form of government ; to-day every coun- 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

« 

try, even Russia and Turkey, has some form of constitu- 
tion. 

This epoch, this constitution-securing epoch, which 
Europe is just completing, Asia has just begun. This 
should occasion no surprise, for in a broad, general way, 
Asia has had much the same governmental evolution as 
has Europe. The great countries of the East, Japan, 
China, and India have had their era of feudalism, their 
era of absolutism; these are naturally followed by an era 
of constitutionalism. The countries of Europe, to be 
sure, passed from one period to another with greater 
uniformity than have those of Asia, for France, Ger- 
many, Spain and England have always been in close mu- 
tual contact, so that any change in one at once hastened 
a similar change in the others. In Asia, during the past 
two thousand years Japan, China and India have, for the 
most part, been isolated, each from the others. Never- 
theless, their development has been, in fundamental re- 
spects, substantially that of Europe. 

In Japan, after the semi-mythical ages were past, there 
grew up an imperial state, much like the Roman empire. 
Gradually, however, this central power declined; strong 
families made themselves practically independent, till 
finally there came the age of full-fledged Japanese feud- 
alism. There were the strong castles, the armored 
knights, the miserable peasants, and the proud hereditary 
local dukes and counts. To be sure, the Japanese castles 
had a peculiar architecture, and the knights' armor 
was not made of chain mail, but in all essentials the 
feudahsm of Japan and that of Europe were the same. 
When Commodore Perry opened Japan to the world, it 
was still in this feudal period ; but forces were at that 
time already at work which, had the country never been 
brought into contact with the outside world, would very 
probably have overthrovv^n feudalism and replaced it by 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

a strong absolutism. As it was, contact with the West 
hastened changes which were already taking place. 
Feudalism was abolished. Then, twenty years later, 
constitutional government was introduced. Thus Japan, 
by the aid of Western example, passed from feudalism 
to constitutionalism in two decades — something which it 
took Europe well-nigh four centuries to accomplish. 

In China there was a well-marked period which is al- 
ways known as the feudal age. It lasted for several cen- 
turies, coming to an end shortly before the beginning of 
the Christian era. During all of this time there was an 
emperor who nominally and theoretically ruled over the 
whole country, but actually was almost as powerless as 
were the early Capetian kings in the days of European 
feudalism. Real power in China was in the hands of the 
hereditary and practically independent rulers of the 
provinces and districts, just as real power in feudal 
France was held by such princes as the dukes of Bur- 
gundy or the counts of Champagne, Feudalism, how- 
ever, was finally overthrown in China, and the present 
imperial power was established — although it must be 
admitted that the government is still somewhat decen- 
tralized. The marked slowness of historical evolution 
in this country is due to the fact that China is a world 
by itself, and, till very recently, has lacked the stimulus 
of competition or comparison with outside nations. China, 
then, had her feudal era; outgrew it; came to her abso- 
lute era ; has been living in that for some centuries ; and 
in accordance with natural historical laws, should be 
nearly ready to pass to some form of popular govern- 
ment. 

India shows this same general development. The 
Mogul empire in the sixteenth century was the first to 
establish itself for any length of time over the greater 
number of the warring states of the peninsula. In 1707, 



INTRODUCTION xv 

however, this empire went to pieces, and though the 
imperial name remained, political anarchy everywhere 
resulted. Petty princes and military adventurers strug- 
gled each against the others, and carved out small ter- 
ritories for themselves, much as was done in Europe in 
the early days of feudalism, after Charlemagne's em- 
pire was broken up. Into this political chaos came the 
British East India Company, which, as it developed into 
the British Indian Empire, gradually brought to the 
country a real unity and a strong central government. 
For the first time in her history, peace and order 
were established throughout the whole land. In this 
way the era of absolutism and unity came to India, an 
era in which India has now lived for upwards of a cen- 
tury. Here, too, it is only to be expected that eventually 
the country will pass to some form of constitutional self- 
government. 

This great era of constitutional self-rule the countries 
of Asia have already entered, their normal rate of po- 
litical progress having been marvelously quickened by 
contact with the nations of the West. Twenty-one years 
ago, not a single state in Asia had any form of constitu- 
tion : to-day, with the insignificant exception of Siam and 
Afghanistan, every country on the continent either has a 
constitution or has decreed the establishment of one. Just 
twenty years ago a constitution was declared in force in 
Japan; since which time the Japanese government has 
been representative and parliamentary. Four years ago 
Russia, which it must be remembered is almost as much 
an Asiatic as it is an European power, was forced to 
grant the famous October Constitution. However limited 
this may be, it yet gives to the people of Siberia the priv- 
ilege of electing delegates who represent them upon the 
floor of the national Russian Duma. 

Three years ago a constitution was proclaimed in Per- 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

sia. The people of this peculiarly Oriental country rose 
in revolt to demand self-government and a parliament. 
They have since defeated the armed reaction which fol- 
lowed, have deposed the Sultan, and established their 
new regime more firmly than before. Within the past 
year Turkey, the land of the " unspeakable Turk," a 
country entirely Asiatic in race and civilization, and very 
largely so geographically, has overthrown its absolutism, 
deposed its Sultan, and established constitutionalism. 

In China a constitution has been promised by the im- 
perial power. September 2, 1906, the Empress Dowager 
issued the decree : " Let there be no delay in making 
China a constitutional government." In 1916, when it is 
thought the people will be fully prepared for it, there is 
to be a Chinese Parliament, the Lower House of which 
will be elected by popular vote. This past fall, in Octo- 
ber, Provincial Legislative Assemblies met for the first 
time in Chinese history; while during this present year 
there is to be convened at Peking a national Provisional 
Parhament. 

Thus every one of the leading independent states of 
Asia, Japan, Russia, China, Persia and Turkey are to- 
day either constitutional or are becoming so. This same 
tendency, moreover, is seen in such countries as India 
and the Philippines, which are held as dependencies or 
colonies of some Western power. India is to-day strug- 
gling to obtain constitutional self-government. The pres- 
ent unrest in that land is profound and far-reaching; 
its true import may be judged from the statements of 
English political leaders and from the discussions by the 
more thoughtful writers. " The present agitation," says 
an American scholar, " is not the expression of a transient 
or superficial discontent, but ... is a part of the 
new awakening of the East." Again, we read from the 
pen of a native : " India is going through a great trans- 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

formation," and addressing the English, he adds, " it is a 
new India which you have to deal with." An English 
army officer recently testified : " One fact is tolerably 
certain. . . . There is now no question that a wave of 
unrest is pervading India. ... It is universal. . . . 
It is the slow growth of many, many years." 

That England can forever govern this capable and 
highly civilized nation of almost three hundred milHon 
people, against their strong, continued opposition, is un- 
thinkable. As Goldwin Smith very recently declared, in 
speaking of the future of English domination in India: 
" Some day the end must come." 

Some day every great dependency in the East must 
control its own local affairs ; it may become completely 
independent, or may remain in the position of such a 
colony as Australia or New Zealand, but self-governing 
it surely must be. The recognition of this fact, and of 
the latent capacity of the dependent peoples in the East, 
is bringing about as profound a change in the colonial 
policy of the Western powers in the Orient, as is notice- 
able in the government of the independent states. 

It is America which has the honor of leading the way. 
The United States in its Philippine policy aims 
neither at exploiting a dependent people, as most colon- 
izing states have done in the past ; nor at ruling them 
permanently, in their interest but against their wishes, as 
England believes she is doing in India and in Egypt. It 
will not permit them to live untutored and uncontrolled, 
while they are still in the school-age of nations, as the 
so-called Anti-Imperialists would do ; but aims at taking 
them by the hand and leading them slowly and gradually 
along the pathway well marked by the footprints of the 
most highly developed nations, until they are fully pre- 
pared to enter the great field of constitutional self-gov- 
ernment. 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

To attempt to rule over a dependent Oriental people 
forever, is simply hopeless ; the recent history of Japan 
has made a laughing-stock of the old idea of the infe- 
riority of all Asiatics and their incapacity for modern 
self-rule. On the other hand, to leave all of them to 
themselves until they may be fitted for a constitutional 
regime, is unwise. There are those, however, who would 
wish to leave every backward race to work out its own 
salvation ; who would permit each primitive people to en- 
joy to the full all the misery, the civil anarchy and the 
recurring wars through which Europe passed on its way 
from feudalism to constitutionalism. But the world to- 
day is too small, the demand for general security and 
peace is too great, and the need for the product of the 
tropics too urgent to permit any considerable section of 
the earth to be fcHced off as an ethnological park where 
backward races may run wild. 

The constant intercommunication between different 
countries, the general and increasing desire for universal 
peace, and the strongly developing sense of an un- 
limited humanitarianism are making this world of 
ours every decade more and more a family of races. 
And the race-children in this world family — chil- 
dren in need of development and yet in the school- 
age — should be under instruction, as much as the chil- 
dren in the cities of America. It must, however, be a 
school in which there is finally a graduation, and from 
which the race-child can pass, sufficiently matured to 
take his place as a man in the world. The Western 
powers have been school teachers to the East for over 
four hundred years, but the United States is the first and 
only nation school teacher to found a school in which a 
race-child may look definitely forward to graduation — 
to a time when its school days shall be over. 

This policy of developing the Filipinos by granting 



INTRODUCTION xix 

them a continually greater share in their own govern- 
ment, has, in the main, been honestly and rapidly car- 
ried out. The United States to-day permits the Filipinos 
to hold — and in the great majority of cases to hold by 
popular election — all the local town offices, two-thirds of 
the provincial offices, the vast majority of the judicial, 
and over sixty per cent, of the civil service, positions, and, 
now that a national assembly has been organized, it gives 
them one-half of the full legislative power in the islands. 
That is, year after year the Filipinos have been granted 
a greater share in administration, a greater control in 
the government, while the Americans have been re- 
stricted more and more to the task of supervision and 
general direction. 

This American policy, which was originally opposed 
and well-nigh laughed at by the colonial administrators 
of other nations, has more recently been followed by the 
British government in India. Ten years ago, the Eng- 
lish were, upon the whole, well contented with the char- 
acter and methods of their Indian administration ; to-day 
there is a general apprehension among thinking people 
that their old absolutistic policy is breaking down, and 
that something new in principle must be adopted. The 
great English explorer and colonial authority. Sir Harry 
Johnston, says in a heart-searching review in this last 
August's " Nineteenth Century " : " It seems to me that 
unless we can . . . admit the demand of the black, 
brown and yellow peoples under our sway for a voice, 
and a slowly increasing voice, in their own destinies, we 
must be prepared to face an awful national rebellion in 
India and an uprising of the negroes throughout British 
Africa." Another English colonial writer has declared 
within the past few months : " We must give them (the 
people of India) a reasonable share, commercially and 
politically, in their own concerns. This, up to the present, 



XX INTRODUCTION 

we certainly have not done. . . .The whole of the 
system on which we govern India must, in fact, be re- 
constituted afresh." Even the British government itself 
has come to feel that radical changes must be made. 
This is seen most clearly in the famous reforms which 
Lord Morley has just introduced into India: to certain 
of the highest advisory and executive councils of India 
one or two natives have been appointed, and in 
the consultative assemblies in the provinces, the natives 
are permitted to have a majority of the members, 
many of whom are elected. These councils do not, 
however, possess full legislative power, as does the Phil- 
ippine Assembly. Lord Morley, by his reforms in in- 
creasing the native representation in the government of 
India, is following along the path which America has 
blazed in the Far East, but there still remains this differ- 
ence : the United States publicly aims at fitting the Fili- 
pinos for self-government; England has not made any 
such promise in regard to India. 

In the general and relatively rapid transformation from 
absolutism which is taking place in Asia, this new 
colonial policy is the only one which will sufficiently 
satisfy the native peoples, so that they will give up 
their agitation for immediate independence, and co- 
operate with the sovereign power in the developing of 
their nation, until the time shall come when it will be 
ready for complete self-government. This has been 
true in the Philippines ; the grant of a national assembly 
did more than everything else to put an end to insurrec- 
tion and to bring peace to the islands. To-day, while the 
mass of the people probably desire immediate independ- 
ence, the leaders are working harmoniously with the 
American authorities in the carrying out of the policy 
of training their people for constitutional self-rule. As 
for India, Mr. Gokhale, probably the best known native 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

leader, has recently declared that the relatively small 
amount of self-government granted by Lord Morley's 
reforms has saved India from drifting into chaos. 

Much the same general situation exists in Egypt as in 
India, for we may consider Egypt as Asiatic, since it is 
so in race and civilization. It, too, is profoundly and 
growingly dissatisfied, and demands, in the words of a 
recent Egyptian petition to the British government, 
" some parlimentary control of its own affairs." The 
petition states, further, " We appeal . . . with confidence 
to the support of the British public in our desire to ob- 
tain a sort of representative assembly with limited 
powers." 

All the lands of Asia, whether independent or de- 
pendent, are now turning with eagerness to a more liberal, 
a more popular form of government. For centuries 
these countries had been plodding along the path of po- 
litical evolution, which the West long since trod, till in 
our own time the pressure from America and from 
Europe hastened a development which otherwise might 
have lingered for decades. So rapid has this progress 
now become that some of the Eastern peoples — notably 
the Japanese — seem to be passing at a bound over whole 
periods of natural development. It is the teaching, the 
example, and the inspiration of Western civilization 
which is showing the nations of the Far East how to 
escape the suffering and horror which marked the birth 
of political liberty in Europe. 

There are still peoples in the Orient — some, on ac- 
count of peculiar political conditions, as the Indians; 
others, on account of general backwardness in civiliza- 
tion, as the Filipinos — who are not yet prepared for full 
modern self-government; but the powers which control 
them can do so successfully only by adopting the new 
colonial policy — that of gradual instruction until their 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

dependencies shall be prepared to carry on alone and 
unaided the work of further advance. 

In the past the countries of Asia were isolated ; to-day 
a new unity has been given to them through their con- 
tact with the West. In the past the reform movement 
was urged on by the scattered energies of single states ; 
to-day it is carried forward by the momentum of a con- 
tinent. And these reforms are little more than begun: 
the Far East is still in the very midst of one of the most 
profound and most rapid of the world's political and so- 
cial revolutions. 

G. H. B. 



China and the Far East 



THE POSITION OF CHINA IN WORLD 
POLITICS 

There are few countries about which opinion has 
varied more often and more completely than it has about 
China in the course of the last hundred years. When 
the nineteenth century opened, the Middle Kingdom was 
known to the outside world only through a few books, 
most of them written long ago — books some of which re- 
tain a value even to the present day, but others were 
fanciful in the extreme. Few living Europeans had 
visited the country. Most men thought of China as a 
very large, rich, magnificent empire, inhabited by an 
enormous number of people with queer manners and cus- 
toms. It was known that this empire had had a history 
and a civilization which had lasted several thousand 
years ; and strange as that history and civilization ap- 
peared to the Western world, their very antiquity and 
the magnitude, if not the quality, of the results, were 
such as to inspire respect. 

The few strangers who had a first hand opportunity 
of judging, namely, the colony of traders at Canton and 
Macao, felt very little of this respect, and they resented 
the tone of lofty superiority assumed by the Chinese, as 
well as the restrictions imposed upon commerce. Also, 
they were aware that the military power of the Empire 
was ridiculously feeble. These foreigners were not for 



2 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the most part men of a stamp to appreciate the higher side 
of Chinese civilization, but all its weak points and the 
decay which had corrupted the Chinese ofBcial system 
were evident to them. They had come to China to make 
money, and they rebelled against the treatment they re- 
ceived, in what they considered a perfectly legitimate 
occupation. They repaid the contempt which the Chinese 
openly expressed for them as barbarians by an even 
greater scorn for things Chinese. 

After the event of the Opium War and the Arrow 
War and the Taiping Rebellion had shown the whole 
world the weakness of the Chinese system, the opinion 
of the Empire held in the Treaty Ports became the one 
that was generally accepted by the outside world. In 
the days when a few thousand English and French 
troops captured Peking, when a large slice of territory 
was seized by Russia and was ceded to her without re- 
sistance or quid pro quo, and when the imperial author- 
ity for years proved itself incapable of putting down the 
rebellions that raged in many parts of the land, China 
was by common consent regarded as a hopelessly de- 
crepit power, perhaps on the verge of dissolution. The 
proper way to obtain anything in dealing with her was, 
in the opinion of the time, to have a prompt and drastic 
recourse to forcible measures, in other words " the gun- 
boat policy." 

Gradually this sentiment underwent a change. The 
reconquest of Eastern Turkestan showed that, when 
well led, the Chinese troops were capable of not only 
fighting bravely, but of winning victories. The impres- 
sion was still further strengthened by the so-called Ton- 
king War, where the successes were far from all being 
on the side of the French. In the Kuldja dispute it was 
Russia rather than China that yielded from fear of hos- 
tilities between the two states. Then, too, some of the 



CHINA IN WORLD POLITICS 3 

reforms that the Chinese were beginning to introduce 
attracted the notice of the outside world. The famous 
statesman and, in his way, reformer, Li Hung Chang, 
enjoyed an international reputation which increased the 
prestige of his country. Many people starting from the 
impressive figures of the population of the Empire, rea- 
soned that if the Chinese could train their soldiers in 
Western fashion — and it was said that the soldiers of Li 
Hung Chang at least were so trained — they could put 
into the field such armies as to menace the very existence 
of Europe. It was in these days that the term " Yellow 
peril " first came into use. 

The Chinese- Japanese war of 1894-5 produced a sharp 
revulsion of feeling. A defeated nation usually receives 
little indulgence from the rest of the world. Its neigh- 
bors are only too ready to prove that all its misfortunes 
are the fruit of its faults, and have been richly deserved. 
The pitiable weakness of Chinese arms and the inability 
of the imperial authorities to control the course of af- 
fairs were interpreted as showing that China was feeble 
in every way. The events of the next few years, such as 
the acquisition of spheres of influence by one power after 
another, the helplessness of the Peking Government to 
resist pressure of any kind — served to confirm the belief 
that China was on the point of dissolution, or at least so 
decadent that she could with difficulty be kept together. 
Her role in the world was henceforth to be a purely 
passive one. We can judge of the general opinion in 
which she was held at that day by the titles of some of 
the books that came out about her in foreign lands — 
" The Breakup of China," " The Partition of China," and 
the like. 

In 1900 the Boxer revolt disturbed a little this compla- 
cent theory. The Chinese showed a power of resistance 
which availed little for the moment, but might prove 



4 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

more formidable another time. The fact is that the move- 
ment for the Westernization of their institutions, and 
particularly for the modernization of their means of de- 
fense, had really been begun many years before. Bitter 
experience had taught them the lesson of their own weak- 
ness. They were not, however, ready to accept this weak- 
ness as more than temporary. Patriotic men of energy 
and influence became convinced of the necessity of thor- 
ough reform, believing that these reforms, if accom- 
plished, could restore to their country something of its 
former greatness. Then came the Russo-Japanese War. 
Chinese opinion, thanks to the preparation of the previous 
year, was more profoundly impressed by the victories of 
the once despised Japanese over the mighty Russians 
than it had been by the victories of these same Japanese 
over the Chinese themselves ten years earlier. The re- 
form movement in China received an extraordinary im- 
petus till to-day it has progressed so far that the rest of 
the world is beginning to change its mind once more. 
The titles of the books we see now are " The Awakening 
of China," " The Reconstruction of China," and others 
of similar import. Of course there are still many skeptics, 
and since the death of the late Empress Dowager, and 
the disgrace of certain well-known liberal officials at the 
hands of the new regime, fresh doubts have been raised 
as to what extent the reforms are really progressing. 
But the general opinion outside still seems to be favor- 
able. 

In the relation of a country to its neighbors, we may 
say that in a certain sense it plays an active and a pas- 
sive role, that is, it acts positively upon others, and at 
the same time it serves as a motive for their action. We 
might almost compare this double role to the export and 
import sides of trade. In the case of China in the last 
century the passive side of her role has been by far the 



CHINA IN WORLD POLITICS 5 

more important. She has done Httle to them and they 
have done much to her. She has suffered greatly in 
her dealings with foreign countries, and the question 
whether it has been rather through her fault than theirs 
does not affect the fact of her losses. In immediate ter- 
ritories she has ceded formally and permanently Hong- 
kong to England ; Macao (which formerly she only 
leased out) to Portugal ; Formosa to Japan. By leases 
which come dangerously near to permanent alienation 
she has given up Kiauchau to Germany ; Kwangchau- 
wan to France; Kowloon and Weihaiwei to England; 
the Liaotung peninsula first to Russia and now to Ja- 
pan. These cessions are embodied in treaties which she 
recognizes as valid. Besides this she has practically lost 
the provinces of Manchuria to Russia and Japan. She 
has likewise had to give up her ancient suzerainty over 
the Liukiu Islands, Burma, Siam, Anam, Korea. She 
has been obliged to submit to the humiliation of allowing 
foreign nations to arrogate to themselves " spheres of in- 
fluence " in her own undisputed territory, which has thus 
been ear-marked for the future partition with which she 
has been menaced. Still, when all is said and done, we 
have to remember that she is one of the largest and per- 
haps the most populous empire in the world, a country 
of enormous potential resources, and one with which all 
the other great states are eager to develop closer rela- 
tions for their own sakes and, they loudly assure her, for 
hers also. 

During the greater part of the nineteenth century 
Great Britain was without doubt the leading power in 
the Far East. It was she that opened up China, that 
fought two victorious wars with her, that has always had 
the greatest trade, and that has organized the Chinese 
customs service, at the head of which is an Englishman. 
From the first there have been more Englishmen in the 



6 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Empire than foreigners of all the other Western nations 
(excepting the Portuguese) put together. For many 
years Great Britain led in the concerted action of the 
powers, and she had without question the dominant in- 
fluence among them at Peking. 

France took part in the second war with China and 
the march on the capital. Her protectorate over the 
Roman Catholic missions in the Empire has given her an 
influence greater than what she has obtained from her 
trade, which has been relatively insignificant. But the 
prestige of France in the Far East never recovered from 
the results of the war with Germany in 1870. It is true 
the annexation of Tonking established her on the southern 
edge of the Empire and gave her a powerful base for 
future operations. But in spite of this, French influence 
at Peking has in recent years been usually overshadowed 
by that of some other nation, either a rival or an ally. 

The connection of Russia with China is older than that 
of the other European nations. Already in the seven- 
teenth century a first treaty was signed between the two 
empires. Since then they have had occasional official 
communication with each other, and a regular trade was 
maintained overland between them; but their relations 
were not close, and along the boundary of several thou- 
sand miles which they had in common, little happened to 
attract attention. In 1859 and i860, profiting by the 
weakness and confusion in Peking as a result of the Eng- 
lish and French invasion, the Russians by very clever 
diplomacy persuaded the Chinese to cede to them the 
left bank of the Amur River and a strip of territory along 
the coast. This cession added immeasurably to the 
strength of their position in the Far East, but its full 
results could not be felt until the new acquisition had been 
at least partially settled, and still more until it had been 
connected with the rest of Russia by railway. In gen- 



CHINA IN WORLD POLITICS 7 

eral, the Russian Government rather avoided taking part 
with other powers in affairs of common concern and 
looked quietly after its own business. 

During the earlier part of the nineteenth century the 
trade of the Americans with China had been very flour- 
ishing. American missionaries, too, came into the coun- 
try in considerable numbers, so that American interests 
in the Empire and American influence were both of no 
small importance. But from about the time of the Civil 
War the American merchant marine in the Pacific de- 
clined steadily, and thereafter, although the situation of 
the representative of the United States at Peking was an 
honorable one, it was not of great consequence. 

In 1894, when the Chinese and Japanese so suddenly 
plunged into war, the relations of the different foreign 
powers to China had not undergone any marked change 
for some time. Now, beginning with the outbreak of 
hostilities, we have to note a series of startling events and 
far-reaching changes. The war itself came as a surprise 
to everybody except the Japanese. Ifs result greatly 
enhanced their prestige, though the check they received 
in the end, when they were forced to give up part of the 
territory they had demanded, slightly tarnished the lustre 
of their glory. Henceforth Japan was recognized as be- 
ing a new and important factor in Eastern affairs, if not 
quite one of the first magnitude. To England, the con- 
flict had been most unwelcome. Any change in the state 
of the Far East would hardly be for her advantage; 
therefore, when the trouble began, public opinion was 
frankly hostile to Japan. As the war went on, this at- 
titude was modified, and by the time it was ended Eng- 
lish sympathies were on the side of Japan, the coming 
power, as against China, the decadent one. Then oc- 
curred the incident of the combination between Germany, 
Russia, and France, which forced the Japanese to moder- 



8 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

ate their claims for indemnity. England found herself 
in a hard position. She had been invited to join with the 
other European powers in putting pressure on the Japa- 
nese, but this she was unwilling to do. She was now 
openly friendly to them, and already regarded them as 
possible future allies against Russia. She might even 
have taken* their side, but it would have involved her in 
very serious risks in view of the strength of the powers 
opposed to her. Besides it would have been an attitude 
almost too violently opposed to the one she had assumed 
a few months before at the outbreak of hostilities, and 
would have cost her the good will of China, to which she 
attached value. All things considered, the British Gov- 
ernment decided to follow the most natural and easiest 
course under the circumstances, to observe neutrality, 
that is to say, to do nothing. This was very probably 
wise, but at critical times inaction, especially in the East, 
is interpreted as weakness, British prestige received a 
blow from which it has never entirely recovered. It was 
still further damaged by the disasters to English arms 
during the Boer War, and although Great Britain by the 
Anglo-Japanese alliance recovered some of the ground 
she had previously held, she can never hope to hold 
again in Peking the dominating position she once did. 
There are now too many rivals for the place. 

Japan was indeed not the only power to appear upon 
the scene in the last years of the nineteenth century as 
a new active factor in the Far Eastern situation. The 
events of the war were soon followed by others equally 
unexpected and of almost equally great influence. In 
1897 the Germans seized and occupied the harbor of 
Kiauchau, and forced the Chinese to consent to their 
presence there. Germany already had an active and 
growing commerce in Eastern waters, but until then po- 
litically had kept in the background, even when she had 



CHINA IN WORLD POLITICS 9 

joined the coalition against lapan, for this had been re- 
garded merely as a small favor to Russia, and not as in- 
dicating any sudden departure in her policy. But after 
the occupation of Chinese territory and the sending of a 
German fleet under the Emperor's brother to Chinese 
waters, and various other demonstrations, it became evi- 
dent to the world that Germany intended to play a lead- 
ing part henceforward in Far Eastern politics. 

We may call the United States another newcomer. It 
had long had a voice in Far Eastern affairs without as- 
piring to dominate them. But in the last years of the 
nineteenth century the revival of American commerce 
in China helped to awaken American attention to what 
was going on across the Pacific and a determination to 
be consulted in the important events taking place there. 
The immediate cause, however, of the new prominence 
of the United States was the acquisition of the Philip- 
pines in 1898. To the surprise of the world, as well as 
to its own, the United States suddenly found itself a Far 
Eastern power, a near neighbor of the other great states, 
and one that very soon took an active share in the in- 
ternational politics of the day. The first exhibition of 
this new activity was Secretary Hay's well-known cir- 
cular in 1899 on the subject of the " open door." 

Meanwhile Russia had abandoned the policy of silent 
growth and observation she had pursued for so long. The 
Japanese attempt to get Port Arthur had alarmed her. 
Not satisfied with balking it, she showed from this time 
on an energy and avidity which for a number of years 
were to make her the leading figure in Far Eastern af- 
fairs. She now had a strong fleet in Asiatic waters ; and 
at Vladivostok she possessed a well-fortified naval base. 
Thanks to recent immigration, Eastern Siberia was be- 
ginning to have a considerable Russian population, and 
the approaching completion of the Trans-Siberian rail- 



lo CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

road was increasing immeasurably the military power of 
Russia in the immediate vicinity of both China and 
Japan. Upon China she was able to bring pressure at 
any point along their common frontier. The permission 
to shorten her railway by building it across Manchuria 
might seem only a fair reward for the assistance she had 
rendered the Chinese in the hour of their distress. But 
the lease of the Liaotung Peninsula was an act of ag- 
gressive imperial policy even if it was immediately pro- 
voked by the German seizure of Kiauchau. The troubles 
of the Boxer Rebellion made the Russians masters of 
Manchuria, and it was evident from the first that at least 
some of them had no intention of giving up their prey. 

Thus we see that at the opening of the twentieth cen- 
tury every one of the world powers was interested, and 
actively interested, in Far Eastern affairs. As was nat- 
ural, their conflicting interests and ambitions produced 
rivalries among them, and they soon tended to form 
into separate groups. At one time the alignment con- 
sisted of Russia and her ally France on the one side, 
usually, though not always, supported by Germany; on 
the other were England and her ally Japan, who could 
ordinarily count on at least the sympathy of the United 
States. Between the two China appeared powerless. 

This was but a few short years ago; since then we 
have witnessed another change of the kaleidoscope 
which has affected the attitude of every one of the parties 
interested. 

The first consequence of the Russo-Japanese War was 
a general recognition of the power of new Japan. She 
had proved herself far stronger than people had sup- 
posed her to be, and since the treaty of peace she has been 
adding feverishly to her military equipment so that to- 
day she is far stronger than she was then. Russia has 
suffered a very severe check, which, though it has not 



CHINA IN WORLD POLITICS ii 

permanently weakened the strength of the Empire, has 
diminished its situation in the world for the time being. 
The war came as a surprise to the Russian people. It 
was never popular, and its outcome has disgusted with 
ambitious Asiatic enterprises, not only the Russian pub- 
lic, but Russian statesmen. The feeling to-day is in favor 
of peace, of internal reforms, and of attention to Euro- 
pean rather than to Asiatic international questions. Many 
fear further hostility on the part of Japan. On the other 
hand, it is not at all impossible that Russia and Japan, 
moved by the same desire to keep the territory they con- 
trol in Manchuria, may soon not only follow a common 
policy, but act in unison, against those who oppose them. 

The Anglo-Japanese alliance was renewed in 1905. 
Since then enthusiasm for it has rapidly diminished. The 
English traders in the Far East suffer severely from 
Japanese competition ; the English self-governing col- 
onies refuse to admit Japanese immigrants of the labor- 
ing class, and there are not a few people in England it- 
self who fear Japanese influence in India, and look on 
Japan as a dangerous future rival. England and France, 
so recently in danger of being drawn into conflict with 
one another, are now on the best of terms through the 
entente cordiale. England and Russia are more friendly 
than they have been since the days immediately after 
the fall of the great Napoleon. Germany is less in evidence 
in Eastern affairs than she was a few years ago, for in- 
directly one result of the Russo-Japanese War has been to 
put an end to ambitions which some Germans indulged 
in with regard to China. Japan has made a treaty of 
friendship with France, and appears no longer hostile 
to Russia. But her relations with the United States, 
though officially friendly, are not as cordial as they were 
five years ago. 

The commercial rivalry between all the various powers 



12 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

for ascendancy in the Chinese markets bids fair to be 
keener than ever. The chief competitors will be Eng- 
land, Germany, Japan, and the United States. 

In this competition all parties concerned see golden 
possibilities. They all make the same claims and use the 
same war cries, such as that of the " open door " ; but 
each is quick to accuse the others of violating the prin- 
ciples he pretends to uphold. America, while taking a 
firm stand in favor of the open door in China, is now 
doing away with it in the Philippines for her own benefit 
and that of the Filipinos, and it will be difficult for her to 
protest if Japan follows her example in Korea. On 
their part the Japanese have been loudly accused both in 
Korea and Manchuria of using their dominant political 
position to give their citizens unfair advantages in the 
way of trade. 

Then besides the scramble for trade we have the 
scramble for concessions. Until now» England, France, 
and Germany have been the three chief capitalistic pow- 
ers offering money to China, indeed urging her to accept 
it, in order to develop her resources for her sake as well 
as their own. Now the United States has just taken a 
step indicating her intention in the future to assume and 
claim the same role as a capitalistic friend. 

It is evident that the question of foreign trade and the 
internal development of China must in the long run go 
hand in hand. China can not continue to buy indefinitely 
the manufactured goods of the Western world unless 
she finds some means of selling her own wares in re- 
turn. In the early days of foreign trade the Chinese sold 
much more than they bought. To-day the situation is 
reversed. The growth of the opium trade first made the 
imports of China exceed her exports. Since then the 
Chinese export of tea has suffered very severely from the 
competition of India and Ceylon ; and cotton goods which. 



CHINA IN WORLD POLITICS 13 

as long as it was a question of hand labor could be pro- 
duced more cheaply in China than in the West, now are 
being imported in ever-increasing quantities, not only 
from Europe, but from America and from Japan. This 
last branch of importation may, however, suffer from 
the establishment of cotton mills in China, a process 
which has already begun. Still there are a very large 
number of Western articles which the Chinese are not 
at present able to produce, and which they will demand 
in increasing quantities. But in the end if they are to 
continue to buy they must sell. 

In speaking of the international situation in the East 
thus far we have been talking of China only in her pas- 
sive role, of the way that by her existence, character, 
and conditions she affects the policy of other powers. 
Let us now consider briefly what her attitude is likely to 
be in the situation in which she finds herself at the pres- 
ent day. Her awakening, which is probably the most 
important result of all of the Russo-Japanese War, pre- 
cludes the idea that she will sit calmly and allow others 
to do with her as they please. On the contrary we may 
expect her to assert herself, to have a policy of her own, 
and to have her friends and her enemies, or, to put it in 
the milder language that suits present-day politics, the 
nations with which she is on more intimate terms, and 
those with which she is on less, like anyone else. It is an 
interesting object of speculation which countries will be 
her intimates, for all proclaim themselves ready and even 
eager to assume the role. 

We shall do well to remember in the first place that 
the present movement in China, like those in Turkey and 
in Persia, is in large measure a patriotic, nationalistic 
one. The Chinese reformers most eager for Western 
education and liberal institutions want them, not only in 
order to make their country more civilized, more pros- 



14 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

perous, happier, but also in order to enable it to assert 
itself. This is a perfectly legitimate ambition and one 
deserving of our sympathy. But it behooves the people 
of other nations, including those of the United States, to 
understand clearly what this term " assert itself " means, 
for such self-assertion affects the interests of other na- 
tions besides China. 

We need not imagine that Chinese statesmen and pa- 
triots are planning wars of revenge to reconquer their 
lost territories or suzerainties. Like other people, they 
have to accept certain accomplished facts. They have, 
however, a right to hope that some day they may be able 
to get back the lands which they have only leased to 
foreigners, and they will direct their policy towards that 
object. It is also obvious that they do not intend to let 
any more of their land go by the board, if they can help 
themselves ; and that they are anxious to recover from 
both the Japanese and the Russians complete possession 
of the region they never formally surrendered, namely, 
Manchuria. We may expect, too, that they will endeavor 
to recover the branches of the administration now con- 
trolled by foreigners, particularly the customs service. 
Excellent as this has been, profitable alike to Chinese and 
to foreigners, we can not demand that reformed China 
should leave so important a branch of its governmental 
system in the hands of strangers, no matter how honest 
and efficient. 

Another thing, which observers who have followed 
Chinese affairs in these last few years have been able to 
note, is that people in the country are anxious to develop 
its resources themselves. Here they run against the 
difficulty of lack of sufficient capital, technical skill, and 
perhaps administrative honesty. Nevertheless a good 
many Chinese patriots would prefer to advance more 
slowly rather than to rely upon outside help, and all are 



CHINA IN WORLD POLITICS 15 

agreed that they must scrutinize more closely than in 
the past the contracts made with foreigners in order to 
save China from economic servitude. This disposition 
to jealous scrutiny is legitimate enough, but it does not 
smooth the path of the foreign capitalist who wishes to 
make profitable investments in the Far East. 

Finally, we must accept it as inevitable that as China 
progresses in strength and modern civilization and in 
self-consciousness she will demand '-equality of treat- 
ment at the hands of the rest of the world. This has oc- 
curred in the case of Japan, it is happening now in India, 
Turkey, and elsewhere, and is in the nature of things. 
It is entirely in keeping with American liberal traditions 
that the United States should recognize the justice of 
such a demand and should show herself ready to make the 
necessary concessions in no grudging spirit. But Ameri- 
cans will do well to keep in their own minds from the 
start what the Chinese demands for equality involve, and 
what attitude the United States should adopt in meeting 
them — an attitude that must be influenced, not only by 
considerations of justice, but also by the legitimate in- 
terests of its own citizens. This, then, raises the ques- 
tion. What are the inequalities from which China suffers 
to-day ? 

We may note first the commercial and fiscal inequality. 
By treaty China is so bound that she is not at liberty to 
fix her own tariffs. To the Chinese the cry of the " open 
door " must often appear a hollow mockery. The door 
that is held open is theirs, and it is held by people who 
make no pretense of holding their own doors any more 
open than they want to. We can understand how China 
came into her present unfortunate position. We can 
justify the Western powers for insisting in their earliest 
treaties on security against arbitrary and vexatious im- 
positions. But we can not expect that modern China 



i6 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

can remain permanently contented with a system which 
denies to her in her trade with foreign countries a hb- 
erty which they assume as a matter of course for them- 
selves. As soon as Japan was strong enough, her claims 
to freedom from local trammels had to be accepted by 
other powers. 

A second inequality consists in the establishment of 
foreign courts in China similar to those existing to-day 
in Turkey and Morocco, We may admit that these 
courts grew up naturally and indeed were unavoidable. 
No Western power could consent to handing over its 
subjects to the tender mercies of Chinese justice. Chi- 
nese ideas and Chinese practice on this subject are still 
too different from ours to make such a thing possible. 
In spite of the fact that Japan has succeeded in creating 
a modern judicial system to which foreigners submit 
with but few murmurs, it does not look as if China would 
be able to achieve the same thing for a good while to 
come, and until this has been achieved no Western na- 
tion will entrust the lives and liberties of its citizens to 
the native courts. Justifiable as such an attitude is, we 
can hardly expect it to be pleasant to the Chinese. Their 
views and ours as to the merits of Chinese justice are 
not likely to be the same. We can hardly imagine a Chi- 
nese judge dispensing his own law to the Chinese popu- 
lation of New York and Boston, and ignoring local juris- 
diction. Such a thing would seem utterly incompatible 
with our ideas of the sovereignty of the American people 
on its own soil. We need not therefore be surprised if 
the Chinese regard the exercise of American or European 
jurisdiction on Chinese soil as an abuse of superior force, 
and if it excites increasing discontent as it did in Japan 
as long as the system continued. We may have to dis- 
regard this discontent, but we can not call it unnatural. 

A third inequality of which the Chinese complain is 



CHINA IN WORLD POLITICS 17 

one that touches America particularly, and that is the 
refusal to receive Chinese immigrants. The whole in- 
ternal history of China is one long story of colonization, 
often checked, often seeing the work of generations un- 
done, but always beginning again and pushing steadily 
forward. It is thus that the Chinese who, three thousand 
years ago, inhabited only a comparatively small territory 
about the Yellow River, have in course of time settled the 
much larger regions which make up their present em- 
pire, displacing or absorbing the earlier populations. 
There are few non-Chinese elements in China proper to- 
day. In Manchuria the Chinese far outnumber the 
Manchus. They are making progress even in the barren 
regions of Mongolia, Eastern Turkestan, and Tibet. They 
have also in the last few centuries been spreading 
outside the bounds of the Empire and crossing the 
seas. 

The reception with which Chinese immigrants have met 
in foreign states has varied many times, and the attitude 
adopted towards them is very different in different coun- 
tries of the world to-day. The Chinese are now excluded 
in great measure from most of the countries of white 
races where they have tried to settle. The United States, 
Canada, Australia, South Africa keep them out save in a 
few instances. They are also shut out of certain terri- 
tories inhabited by colored populations but under white 
rule. They are welcomed by the English in the Malay 
States and in Burma. They are limited and watched 
with some apprehension by the French in Indo-China; 
by the Dutch in Anam ; and by the Russians in eastern 
Siberia. They are excluded by the Americans in the 
Philippines. 

We need not enter here into the question of whether 
this exclusion is right or not. Admitting for the sake of 
argument that it is wise and even necessary, this does 



i8 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

not alter the fact that the arrangement is one-sided and 
can hardly be agreeable to the Chinese. Their special 
grievances may perhaps in time be removed by general 
legislation limiting immigration into the United States 
in such a manner that it would no longer be necessary 
to discriminate specifically against them. Indeed, re- 
cent action in regard to the immigration of Japanese 
tends to lessen the odium of American conduct towards 
China. But the least that the Chinese will feel entitled 
to demand is equality. If the United States is entitled 
to shut out certain classes of their citizens and to ex- 
amine others closely, they may claim the same privilege 
with regard to Americans. Practically, of course, a 
treaty which should exclude from each country the labor- 
ing classes in the other would make little difference in 
their present relations. One can not conceive of an 
American laboring man trying to earn his living in China 
in competition with the natives. On the other hand, any 
distinction between different classes of American citizens 
is quite contrary to all American democratic traditions. 
One can imagine the clamor that a treaty would provoke 
which provided that the American capitalist should be 
allowed to go to China, but the working man should be 
excluded. We can hardly conceive, too, of the American 
tourist or merchant visiting China submitting placidly to 
minute inquisition into his character and to anthropo- 
metric measurements of his person to make sure that he 
is not a laborer in disguise. The truth is, blink the fact 
as we may, the American public is not yet ready to treat 
the Chinese as on a level with itself. However natural 
such an attitude may be, it is not conducive to good feel- 
ings. 

It is not the object of this paper to suggest a solution 
for the difficulties we have just touched upon. The ques- 
tions raised are very grave ones which will not be settled 



CHINA IN WORLD POLITICS 19 

in a day, and whose ultimate solution we can not foresee 
with certainty. All that we can do at present is to face 
these difficulties with a clear comprehension of their na- 
ture, and to deal with them as they arise according to the 
best of our ability in such manner as shall seem, not only 
wise to ourselves, but fair to all parties. 



II 

A SKETCH OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN 
CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 

It is a trite and self-evident proposition that, in order 
to give any broad and comprehensive knowledge of past 
or existing affairs and conditions, the causes and circum- 
stances which led up to them must be clearly understood. 

In no department of Chinese politics and affairs does 
this remark apply with such pertinency and force as to 
that of her foreign relations. The attitude of China 
towards foreign governments has seemed so peculiar and 
abnormal, her disposition towards all forms of intercourse 
so recalcitrant and unwilling, as to provoke all varieties 
of criticism and censure. At times it has appeared nec- 
essary to remind Western people that the Chinaman is 
human, moved by the same feelings and purposes which 
actuate and guide other men, that there may be peculiar 
reasons for his peculiar attitude and action, and that he 
who desires to be just and fair might well seek to know 
more, and to judge less. To know more, because there 
are few more interesting chapters in history than that of 
Chinese diplomacy. To judge less, because China de- 
serves a more kindly judgment than that which is usually 
recorded against her. 

Two natural factors — ^to call them such — ^have had 
much to do with Chinese seclusion from the rest of the 
world. The first of these has been the extreme difficul- 
ties of her language. The second is her geographical iso- 
lation. It is only necessary to consult a map to under- 
stand this latter coildition fully. Her eastern frontier is 



22 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the Pacific Ocean, no longer a barrier but a facility to in- 
tercourse. Her northern neighbors were, and still re- 
main, wild wandering tribes who could give China noth- 
ing, and who long since became Chinese dependents. The 
whole stretch of her western boundary was, and still is, 
occupied to a large extent with sandy deserts scarcely 
less painful and perilous to traverse than the Sahara of 
northern Africa. Towering above her southwestern and 
a portion of her southern frontier arose the impassable 
Himalaya Mountains, upon the slopes of which rests the 
insignificant Principality of Tibet, long since drawn 
within the essential control of the Chinese Emperor. To 
the south and southeast are the petty kingdoms of Bur- 
mah, Siam, and Cochin China, now substantially absorbed 
by Great Britain and France. Thus China has been, 
from the beginning of time, geographically isolated, by 
barren deserts, mountain ranges and broad seas, from 
all those parts of the earth which were peopled by races 
in any measure her peers, and among whom the progress 
and development of the earth have been brought about. 
Only with the evolution of the modern means of rapid, 
easy, and cheap intercommunication has it become pos- 
sible for the people and government of China to come 
into any close and intimate touch with the Western 
world. And while the peoples, races, and tribes which 
surrounded the Chinese Empire gained much from her 
civilization, and, as will be shown, borrowed nearly all 
of her knowledge, they could give nothing to her. China 
had no neighbors from whom she could learn anything. 
There is, however, abundant evidence that the Chinese 
possessed a limited knowledge of southwestern Asia 
and the adjacent portions of Europe before the Christian 
era, and, probably, before the birth of Confucius. And, 
of course, there is equal evidence that the peoples of 
those regions had some knowledge of the Chinese. There 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 23 

is strong reason for the belief that the Prophet Isaiah 
referred to China when he mentioned " The land of 
Sinim." The prophetic words were spoken about 712 
B.C. or more than a century and a half before the Chinese 
sage was born. It is certainly known from Persian writ- 
ings and legends that a demand for the splendid silks 
even then woven in China had sprung up in the Persian 
Empire previous to the birth of Christ. At a period at 
least two centuries before Christ, the Phoenicians, Car- 
thaginians, and Syrians were already masters of an ex- 
tensive trade, and it is abundantly evident that an active 
commerce existed some centuries before the Christian 
era. It is quite impossible to identify the names of cities 
mentioned in these ancient chronicles with any centers 
of commerce now known in China. Knowledge of the 
country and the language was exceedingly slight. Names 
were misunderstood and confused. And the modern 
student who undertakes to fix the localities mentioned by 
these foreign merchants will meet with somewhat the 
same difficulties which, so says Williams, a Chinese geog- 
rapher, writing at Fuchau as recently as 1847, found 
confronting him in his efforts to identify the Colossus of 
Rhodes with Rhode Island, 

From some cause which may neither be understood 
nor explained, commercial and friendly missions between 
the Emperor of China and the heads of various Asiatic 
and European states first were dispatched at about the 
beginning of the Christian era. From that period they 
greatly increased in frequency and importance. And 
they were not altogether of a commercial nature. Thus, 
in A.D. 61, the Chinese Emperor, moved alike by a dream, 
and by a statement made five hundred years earlier by 
Confucius, that a sage having the true wisdom would be 
born in the West, sent an envoy to the West " for teach- 
ers and books of the true religion." So ran the Imperial 



24 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

instructions. But the envoy, dreading the hardships and 
perils of the deserts, deflected his course to the south, 
entered India, and returned with Buddhist writings and 
priests. In a.d. 126 a Chinese general reached the valley 
of the Caspian Sea, and carried the grape vine back 
to China. In a.d. 166 the Roman Emperor, Marcus An- 
toninus, sent an embassy by sea to China, to procure the 
rich silks which the people of that empire manufactured. 
The culture of silk was introduced into Europe from 
China, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Justin- 
ian. It is certain that at the time of this ruler a large 
exchange of commodities was being carried on between 
the two empires. The Romans obtained from China 
silk, iron, and furs. And the Chinese received in ex- 
change, glassware, asbestos, woven fabrics, drugs, dyes, 
metals, and gems. It is at this period that the first re- 
corded knowledge of China is to be found among Euro- 
pean records. It was written by Ptolemy, the Roman 
geographer. And it is a curious, though not strange, 
fact that, at about the same period, the Chinese historical 
records contain the first mention of the Romans. It is 
extremely interesting to read what each says of the 
other. The Romans said of China : " The region of the 
Seres (Chinese) is a vast and populous country, touch- 
ing on the east the ocean and the limits of the habitable 
globe, and extending west nearly to Imaus and the con- 
fines of Bactria. The people are civilized men, of mild, 
just, and frugal temper, eschewing collisions with their 
neighbors, and even shy of close intercourse, but not 
averse to dispose of their own products, of which raw 
silk is the staple, but which include also silk stuffs, furs, 
and iron of remarkable quality." And of the Romans 
the Chinese said : " Everything precious and admirable 
in all other countries comes from this land. Gold and 
silver money is coined there ; ten of silver are worth one 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 25 

of gold. Their merchants trade by sea with Persia and 
India, and gain ten for one in their traffic. They are 
simple and upright and never have two prices for their 
goods; grain is sold among them very cheap, and large 
sums are embarked in trade. Whenever ambassadors 
come to the frontiers, they are provided with carriages 
to travel to the capital, and after their arrival a certain 
number of pieces of gold are furnished them for their 
expenses." 

The tea plant, not indigenous to China, was introduced 
from India in a.d. 315. Ivory, apes, peacocks, silks, medi- 
cines, and gums were transported, both by the dangerous 
sea route, and the more dangerous land route, in these 
early Christian centuries. A little later a trade developed 
with Arabia, Greece, and Constantinople. The extent 
to which the foreign sea commerce in China grew in those 
ancient times, may be inferred from a statement made 
by an Arab writer that, at the sacking of Kan fu, a sea- 
port of southern China to which all Arabian traffic was 
directed, no less than one hundred and twenty thousand 
Mohammedans, Jews, Christians, and Parsees, all mer- 
chants engaged in the foreign trade, lost their lives. The 
destruction of this city took place about a.d. 877. Mis- 
sionaries of the Nestorian form of faith had reached 
China long ere this, probably as early as 300 a.d. In 505 
A.D. they had a complete ecclesiastical organization in 
the Empire, in 551 a.d. returning missionaries carried 
back the eggs of the silk worm to Constantinople, and 
by a.d. 781, the faith had spread throughout China, was 
patronized by the Emperor, and many high officials of 
the Empire were among its numbers. The Nestorian 
tablet, still in existence at Hsi An Fu, furnishes ample 
proof of this. 

The trade missions from Rome, Constantinople, and 
Arabia continued down to about a.d. iioo. Envoys from 



26 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Ceylon were also frequent. In 1266 the King of Ceylon, 
then an independent ruler, had Chinese soldiers in his 
service. In 1406, the Emperor of China sent a fleet to 
Ceylon, by which the King, his family, and ministers 
were captured and carried as prisoners to Peking, where 
they remained in durance for five years. The little king- 
dom thereafter paid tribute to China until 1459. And — 
to turn again to Persia, Chinese engineers were employed 
upon public works in that empire in a.d. 1275, and be- 
fore that date, Chinese physicians and astrologers healed 
the sick and foretold the future in Tabriz, then the Per- 
sian capital. The Mongol incursions into China, which 
had commenced shortly before the date last mentioned, 
were followed, as is well known, by the seizure of the 
Chinese throne. Those two great Mongol emperors and 
military leaders, Zenghis and Kublai Khan, overran and 
subdued nearly the whole of Asia ; they led their armies 
into Europe, terrorized that continent, and were at last 
only brought to a halt at the very gates of Vienna. These 
great military events put an end, for a considerable per- 
iod of time at least, to the quieter forms of commercial 
intercourse between China and the West, which had been 
carried on for so long, and had reached such large pro- 
portions. For the purposes of this sketch, the antique 
period of Chinese foreign relations, as it may be called, 
ends with the Mongol rule, or about a.d. 1500. 

If this lengthy detail, of the principal features of the 
earlier intercourse between China and the outside world, 
has proved somewhat tedious, it also has been necessary 
in order to develop clearly certain facts, facts full of sig- 
nificance, but not generally understood. It has thus been 
made evident that in this ancient intercommunication, 
the Chinese played a full part. They were not merely 
passive recipients of trade caravans from remote coun- 
tries. Chinese merchants pushed their way over all the 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 27 

known regions of Asia, Europe, and Africa, seeking new 
avenues and new centers of traffic. Nor was the Imperial 
Government either indifferent or hostile to this enter- 
prise. There are abundant evidences to show that, upon 
the contrary, it was encouraged and fostered by the 
Throne. The details already given may be considered 
sufficient proof of this fact. But one circumstance, pur- 
posely kept out of its chronological order in this narra- 
tive, will establish it more positively. In a.d, 98, an en- 
voy was sent from China westward with directions to 
learn more about the Roman people, and to establish di- 
rect trade between that empire and China. He reached 
a seaport where he proposed to go westward by sea. 
He was hindered and dissuaded from doing this by the 
people of the port, the Parthians, who, as intermediaries, 
had controlled the traffic between Rome and China, and 
so failed to accomplish the object of his mission. It was 
in order to avoid the Parthian monopoly that later — :A.d. 
166 — the Roman emperor opened the sea route of traffic. 
That the Chinese, government and people, should have 
taken an active part in the development and maintenance 
of commercial intercourse with foreign countries, in 
those early days, cannot seem at all strange to any per- 
son who is even moderately familiar with the char- 
acteristics of the race. They are a nation of merchants. 
The commercial instinct is, and always has been, strongly 
developed in them. To this day the merchants of China 
rank second to none in the world in abiHty, shrewdness, 
and integrity. They know how to drive a sharp bargain, 
how to make the most of small profits, and how to keep 
their pledges and commercial honor. And these facts, 
coupled with others which need not be given here, must 
prove that, in those ancient days, the Chinese had no ob- 
jections to foreign intercourse, but, on the contrary, wel- 
comed and fostered it. They were easily receptive of all 



28 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

forms of knowledge, sent embassies abroad in search of 
it, welcomed new theories and practices with their 
teachers and apostles, and China was freely and fully 
open to theorist, priest, traveler, merchant, and any other 
respectable wanderer. Foreigners were welcomed by 
the Government and then, later, rose to high positions 
in the service of the state. Foreign forms of religious 
belief could be freely taught. The policy of the Throne 
was that of entire toleration, the Emperor made gifts to 
churches and temples alike, and the members of the official 
class were free to profess what form of faith they might 
choose. 

Such was the consistent and unvarying policy of the 
Chinese Government, in all matters touching foreigners, 
from the earliest times down to a comparatively recent 
period, when it was all changed, and a rigid policy of 
exclusion and seclusion adopted and adhered to. Since 
the Chinese are human beings, moved and governed by 
the same impulses and purposes which control other races 
of men ; since it is wise and safe to measure their actions 
as the actions of other men are measured, is it possible 
to resist the conclusion that conditions must have changed 
and that reasons of the most serious, permanent and for- 
midable character must have arisen to justify and neces- 
sitate such a sweeping change in the ancient policy of 
the Empire? And is it too much to expect that fair- 
minded, intelligent persons will take steps to inforni 
themselves of the actual causes of this change before 
they join in the common outcry against China for having 
made and persisted in itf 

While the international trade, destroyed during the 
Mongol incursions, and short-lived dynasty, appears to 
have never been renewed, a considerable amount of com- 
munication and intercourse was kept up by travelers. Spe- 
cial embassies were also sent from various parts of 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 29 

Europe to the Chinese Emperor. Thus the Pope, In 1241, 
sent two monks to the Mongol ruler to urge him to the 
exercise of greater humanity to his European captives. 
They carried no presents to the sovereign, as was then 
the invariable custom, and in consequence were roughly 
treated, barely escaping with their lives. Louis XI of 
France, having heard that a Chinese general, then hold- 
ing command upon the western frontier of the Empire, 
was a Christian, sent a mission to him in 1253. This mis- 
sion consisted of a friar and three companions. They 
were sent on to the Chinese capital, where they found a 
Nestorian high in favor and the only medium of approach 
to the Emperor. They at once became involved in dan- 
gerous religious disputes, and were finally sent back 
home, which they reached after an absence of two years. 
It can hardly be necessary to continue this list of monks, 
friars, and travelers of every kind and degree who made 
their way at different periods, during several centuries, 
from different points in Europe, by different routes, and 
with different purposes, to the court of the Chinese em- 
peror. Though they accomplished little else, they kept 
alive in Western lands some knowledge of a great and 
civilized nation " lying in the extreme east upon the 
shores of the Pacific." 

Two of these travelers, however, deserve notice for the 
greater knowledge of the China of those days which they 
secured and for the valuable information which they 
gave to the European world upon their return. The 
more important of these was Marco Polo, a Venetian. 
He left Constantinople for the East in 1260. He spent 
twenty-one years in China, held a responsible office un- 
der the Emperor, with whom he was high in favor, visited 
his native land under a promise to return to China, which 
promise he fulfilled, bearing with him letters from Pope 
Gregory X to the Chinese sovereign. His narrative, as 



30 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

translated and edited by Colonel Yule, is exceedingly in- 
teresting and valuable. The other of the two travelers 
was a Moor, named Ibn Batuta, who commenced his 
wanderings in 1325. They were wanderings, rather than 
travels. He remained three years in Mecca, and eight 
years in Delhi, India, where he was high in favor 
with the Sultan. In 1342 he was sent as an envoy by 
this ruler to China. While he failed to reach that desti- 
nation, in his capacity as ambassador, he arrived there 
in what was evidently his more natural character, of 
wanderer. Among his observations in China is to be 
found the statement that the use of paper money, by 
orders of the monarch, had entirely driven all metallic 
currency out of circulation. 

The idea of diplomatic establishments permanently set- 
tled at the capitals of all independent nations, for the con- 
sideration and adjustment of such international ques- 
tions as may arise from time to time, is, comparatively 
and essentially, modern. The initial factor in all such 
intercourse is trade. And under the older and Oriental 
theory, it was beneath the dignity of the government to 
concern itself with such matters as the interchange of 
vulgar commodities. All questions referring to com- 
merce belonged to the merchants. Let them adjust them 
among themselves. If, indeed, attempts were made to 
evade taxation, or to smuggle goods contraband of law, 
then the authorities must intervene. But that, again, was 
the business of the local officials. They knew the law 
and their duty under it. Why trouble the sovereign? 
This was the ancient and Oriental idea. Hence, when it 
came about, in much later times than those which have 
been under review, that Western powers sent ambassa- 
dors to China, who had much to say of the protection 
and development of commerce, and insisted upon the 
right to establish permanent diplomatic missions at 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 31 

Peking, the Chinese were unprepared for any such re- 
quest, and not merely unable to comprehend and sympa- 
thize with the motive of the proposition, but inclined to 
regard with scorn any government which would " dabble 
in trade." From the Chinese point of view, the utmost 
limit of any reasonable request would be, that the vice- 
roys and governors of provinces within which were lo- 
cated centers of foreign trade, be instructed to confer 
with foreign officials as occasion might arise, and to ad- 
just any points of difficulty or disagreement. And this 
was one of the reasons, though of minor importance, 
when compared with others yet to be mentioned, why the 
government of China resisted so stubbornly the con- 
tinued presence of foreign ministers at Peking, and why 
the United States legation, in common with others, 
tossed about for so many years in our ships of war upon 
the restless bosom of the China Sea. 

Almost from the beginnings of her history, China has 
been the central figure in a world, largely of her own 
creation, in which she was the final dominant moral force. 
She has been the planet, the powerful civilized and cul- 
tivated empire, surrounded by a circle of admiring satel- 
lite kingdoms. Korea, upon the northeast, the Tartar 
families on the north, Kashgar and Samarkand upon the 
west, Tibet, in its Himalayan clouds' and snows, at the 
southwest, Burma and Siam at the south, Anam and 
Cochin China, trailing ofif from her southeastern frontier, 
and those tiny and inoffensive specks which lie, like a 
fringe, off to the east, marking the eastern limits of the 
China Sea, and known as the Liukiu Islands, these 
formed a system, an Oriental world, of which the Chi- 
nese Empire was the center. They flattered her by that 
most delicate and subtle form of flattery, imitation. They 
copied her form of civilization, modeled their govern- 
mental systems after hers, borrowed her religions, 



2,2 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

adopted, in several instances, her written language, 
gained their knowledge of the arts and literature from 
her, and all of them deferred and appealed to her, as 
final authority and sovereign mistress in an intellectual 
and moral, hut not governmental, sense of the term. She 
was arbiter of their disputes, whether domestic or inter- 
national. She aided each, at times, to quell insurrection 
by the force of her arms. She held herself, and was held, 
as the patron and superior of each and all. 

The relationships between China and the other nations 
and tribes named were always, to an Oriental mind, 
definite and well understood. Embassies reached Peking 
from each of the smaller states at each New Year, bring- 
ing presents and the felicitations of the season to the em- 
peror. They were imperially entertained by him, and on 
their return home were the bearers of return gifts to 
their rulers, which gifts were always as much more valu- 
able than those which they brought, as the emperor was 
greater in power and wealth than their lords. It is only 
within a few years that the King of Siam has ceased 
sending a biennial gift of white elephants to the Court at 
Peking. And the winter of 1894-95 marked the first 
Chinese New Year in many centuries in which the King 
of Korea failed to dispatch his annual embassy, of com- 
pliment and congratulation, to the Chinese sovereign. 
Large bodies of merchants accompanied these envoys, the 
merchandise which they sold and bought being, as a mat- 
ter of privilege, exempt from all taxes and imports of 
every kind. And it is important to keep in mind that, 
whatever may have been the interruptions and however 
vexatious the course of commerce between China and 
Western Asia, Europe and America, this international 
traffic, between the Empire and neighboring Asiatic 
countries, has not been disturbed or interfered with for 
many centuries except in the unusual circumstance of 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 33 

war. The annual procession of clumsy craft, jogging 
along their journey from Bangkok, Siam, to the ports of 
China, going as far north as Tientsin, and making one 
round voyage each year, may be seen to-day. as it might 
have been before the discovery of America by Columbus. 
As was, perhaps, to have been expected, when the chief 
Western powers, having succeeded mainly by force of 
arms, in establishing permanent diplomatic relations with 
the Chinese Empire, turned their attention to these nearby 
states, there arose a universal misunderstanding in re- 
gard to the loose- jointed and essentially Oriental con- 
nection which has just been described. Having no ac- 
curate idea of its nature, and ignorant, or forgetful, of 
the fact that all forms of feudalism had been abolished 
in China two centuries before the birth of Christ, they 
decided it to be the relationship of suzerain and vassal, 
of which, in fact, it lacked every essential quality. One 
incident in this connection may be taken as a fair sample 
of the misunderstanding, and what came of it. Korea — 
the Hermit Kingdom, as it has been called — was close 
shut against all foreigners except neighboring Asiatics. 
The United States was anxious to put an end to the hor- 
rible cruelties practiced upon American seamen when 
ship-wrecked and cast ashore in Korea, and, to that end, 
sought to make a treaty with the king. Efforts directly 
made having failed, the fancied authority of China over 
Korea was appealed to. The Chinese Government dis- 
claimed all right to interfere. Then a United States 
fleet was sent to the little kingdom, accompanied by an 
ambassador duly empowered to conclude an agreement. 
When this fleet arrived off the coast, no communication 
could be established, and when one of the vessels of war 
entered the mouth of a river, she was promptly fired on 
from the forts. A force was landed, the fort was at- 
tacked and taken, and a number of men were killed upon 



34 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

both sides. The project of direct negotiation with the 
King of Korea was then abandoned. A few months 
later, a formal demand was made upon the Chinese Gov- 
ernment, that it force Korea to conclude a treaty with the 
United States, or itself assume responsibility for the 
proper treatment of American seamen. But China de- 
clined to do either, in turn formally asserting that the 
Emperor possessed " No right or authority to interfere 
in either the internal affairs or foreign relations of the 
Korean Kingdom." This was strictly true, though not 
so understood at the time. The Empire might advise, 
but could not command the Korean ruler. Ten years 
after these events occurred, China advised her neighbor 
to enter into diplomatic relations with the United States, 
and the existing treaty was the result. 

There is no word in any European tongue which will 
exactly describe the position which China claimed to 
hold vis a vis the smaller states named, because the idea 
is wholly foreign to our conceptions of international re- 
lationships. Vague, indefinite, and difficult of classifica- 
tion as it may appear to the Occidental, to the Oriental 
it is simple and clear, because it is exactly in line with 
his idea and theory of government. He describes it as 
the relation, or position, of an elder brother towards a 
younger. When the Chinese Government has had occa- 
sion to describe her attitude and relationship towards 
any of the neighboring states, precisely the same word 
and phrase is used which is employed to indicate the rela- 
tive positions of two brothers, the elder and the younger. 
Recalling the fact that the entire theory and basis of gov- 
ernment in China is to be found in the patriarchal, or 
parental, system, in which the elder brother has a certain 
authority over, and responsibility for, the younger, it 
ceases to be difficult to understand the tie which con- 
nected China with her surrounding and less powerful 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 35 

neighbors. It carried a sort of moral superiority and 
right of control, which could be exercised, or evaded, at 
will. And perhaps, in this fact is to be found that fea- 
ture of the systems which is most pleasing to the Oriental 
mind. Citizens of the United States, at least, should 
readily understand the relationship, and as readily dis- 
cover the value of it, since in application, where an out- 
side government is concerned, it bears a striking resem- 
blance to a theory strongly maintained in this country. 
In certain phases of its practical use, what is it but a 
sort of Asiatic prototype of the Monroe Doctrine? 

Prior to the year 1500 a.d. the entire foreign relations 
of China, whether of an official or commercial character, 
had been with the nations and peoples of Asia and south- 
eastern Europe. And it cannot be too clearly pointed 
out and understood that, up to that time, excepting only 
the period of the Mongol invasion, there were no signs 
of any policy of exclusion and non-intercourse. The 
Empire was open and free to all foreigners of every call- 
ing and profession, subject only to those restrictions and 
limitations which were usual in all countries in those 
days. The people of modern Europe had not made their 
appearance upon the Chinese borders, and were quite un- 
known to the natives of that Empire. The latter were, 
however, soon to learn of them. A period of exploration, 
exploitation, plunder, and piracy, had set in among the 
nations which bordered upon the Atlantic, and deeds were 
done — and are admired to-day — which if done to-day 
would cause the perpetrators of them to be swung from 
the yardarms of their ships. China was to receive her 
first introduction to the manners, methods, civilization, 
morals, and Christianity of western Europe from such 
men. The French jfirst appeared in China, in 1506; the 
Portuguese followed them in 1516; the Hollanders at 
about the same time; the Spaniards appeared in 1575; 



36 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the British in 1635 ; and the Russians in 1658. With the 
possible exceptions of the British and the Russians, the 
conduct of all these pioneers of, so-called, peaceful com- 
merce, was such as befitted pirates rather than amicably- 
disposed and civilized men, and they well deserved not 
merely exclusion from the Empire, but extermination by 
the hands of the Chinese authorities. They harried the 
southern coasts of China, plundered and destroyed towns 
and cities, killed inoffensive men, women and children by 
scores and hundreds, and then sailed peacefully away. Or 
they landed, forced the native Chinese to construct forti- 
fications for them, by the most outrageous brutalities, 
seized and carried away women, robbed the natives of 
whatever valuables they possessed, and violated every 
principle of humanity and decency. 

Take one or two instances as fair examples of all. The 
Portuguese merchants came to Canton in 15 17, and gave 
great satisfaction to the authorities by their fair dealings. 
They were cordially welcomed and well treated. The 
next year they came again and behaved so atrociously 
that, after several years' effort and endurance, on the 
part of the Chinese, they were driven away in 1521. 
Later they came again and established themselves at 
Ningpo, a seaport in central China. Their conduct 
here was such as to draw upon them the vengeance of 
an outraged people, who at last rose against them, " de- 
stroyed 12,000 foreigners, of whom 800 only were Portu- 
guese, and burned thirty-five ships and two junks." Four 
years later they were driven from another settlement, 
and for the same reasons. In 1560 they obtained tem- 
porary footing upon the peninsula of Macao, by trick 
and fraud, which, by trick and fraud, they have contin- 
ued to hold down to the present time. In recent years, 
it was the center and depot of the infamous coolie trade 
under the permit and patronage of the Government of 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 37 

Portugal, and since that was crushed out by the Chinese 
Government in 1872, Macao has been the headquarters 
of gambHng, which is forbidden in China, but which has 
been encouraged for purposes of revenue, by the so- 
called " Most Christian King " of Portugal. 

The Dutch introduced themselves to the peaceable and 
peace-loving Chinese by means of a fleet of seventeen 
men-of-war, with which they bombarded a city upon the 
coast. Being repulsed, they took possession of a group 
of outlying islands which they proceeded to fortify, forc- 
ing the natives, with brutal measures, to do the work. 
At different times they made descents at several points 
along the coast, committing acts of piracy, and working 
havoc wherever they appeared. Being repeatedly driven 
off, they finally abandoned their efforts to secure a " foot- 
hold for commerce " in China. The French, who came 
in 1506, introduced themselves, also by means of armed 
vessels, and by acts of plunder and murder. 

This sort of " kindly intercourse in the interests of 
trade," here necessarily described, and dismissed, within 
the compass of a few sentences, continued at varying in- 
tervals for nearly three centuries. In its more acute 
form, it died out gradually, not from any growth of re- 
spect for the rights of the Chinese, nor from any keener 
sense of decency upon the part of those actually engaged 
in it, but partly from an increased power of resistance 
shown by the Chinese with a consequent diminution of 
profits from such enterprises, and because of a change of 
conditions in Europe. 

Would the Government of China have shown itself to 
be anything less than utterly incompetent, or infamously 
neglectful of the lives and property of its subjects, had 
it failed to adopt a policy of strict seclusion against na- 
tions which, so far as it knew or could learn, were fitly 
represented by the specimens described above ? Was not 



38 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the length of time during which the Empire suffered 
from these atrocities, and the range of experience gained 
from them, more than ample to justify such an extreme 
measure? With all men, first impressions and experi- 
ences appear to strike deeper and to have a more abiding 
force than any which may come after. The Chinese are 
no exception to this rule, and to this day they judge the 
nations of Europe by what they learned of, and suffered 
from, them a number of centuries ago. 

Harold Gorst, British authority, writing so recently as 
1899, thus places his verdict upon record : " Rapine, mur- 
der and a constant appeal to physical force, chiefly char- 
acterized the commencement of Europe's commercial in- 
tercourse with China. It was not until they had fully 
earned the title, that the Europeans acquired the dis- 
agreeable appellation of ' foreign devils.' In the eyes of 
the Chinese, the goal at which all Western barbarians 
aimed was war and robbery." And Dr. Williams says: 
" The outrageous behavior of foreign traders themselves 
must be regarded as a chief cause of the watchful se- 
clusion with which they were treated. These character- 
istics of avarice, lawlessness, and power have been the 
leading traits in the Chinese estimate of foreigners, from 
their first acquaintance with them, and the latter have 
done little to effectually disabuse Orientals upon these 
points." 

Such were the earlier experiences of the Chinese with 
the men from modern Europe, and such the resultant 
ideas which they gathered concerning them. Under the 
most favorable conditions of later intercourse, with great 
conciliation and forbearance, generations must have 
passed before these memories and ideas could have been 
removed, and contempt and fear could give place to 
respect and kindly regard. The Chinese are slow to 
abandon prejudice, and much tact, patience, and open- 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 39 

handed generosity o£ feeling must have been called into 
exercise, before the old barrier wall could have been 
torn down, and any satisfactory relationship have been 
created. 

Most unfortunately, no such favorable conditions as 
those mentioned have been fulfilled. True, the Chinese 
have learned very much regarding Western foreigners 
during the past sixty years of constant intercourse. To 
a limited extent they have learned to discriminate be- 
tween nations, and to dissociate the generous feelings 
and plans of mutual benefit which animate some, from 
the arrogant spirit of proprietorship, selfish greed of 
gain, and lust for political domination, which determine 
the conduct of others. But it has been an unwelcome 
study upon the part of the Chinese. Within this period 
of sixty years, they have been taught to their bitter 
sorrow, the aggressive force and persistent determination 
of Western governments, and their power to accomplish 
their will. They have had many object lessons in West- 
ern civilization set before them, some of the highest and 
best type, and others of the lowest, most repulsive and 
degrading. They have fully discovered, or think that 
they have, which amounts to the same thing, what is the 
underlying motive and purpose of all European interest 
in them and conduct toward them. And that motive and 
purpose, as the Chinese to-day believe it to be, can be 
stated in two words, money-making and land-stealing. 
The intelligent thinking minds of the Empire, and they 
are many, have not been quite ignorant of, or watched 
idly, the course of political events in other parts of the 
world, as directed and determined by the great European 
powers. They put their own construction upon the 
absorption of Burma, the mutilation of Siam, and the 
dissection and distribution of the great body of the 
African continent. And within the last sixty years 



40 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

they have at least recognized the necessity of copying 
one Western idea — the development of the resources of 
the Empire in the direction of self-defense. 

So far as is known, the first treaty negotiated between 
China and any European government was with Russia, 
and was signed in August, 1689. This, however, was not 
a treaty of commercial intercourse, its object being to 
delimit certain disputed boundary lines between the two 
empires. While the English were the last of the great 
nations of modern Europe to establish intercourse with 
the Chinese, their commerce has been greater than that 
of all other foreign nations combined, and the British 
Government made the first commercial treaty with the 
Emperor of China. What the influence of the English 
in the Chinese Empire was, prior to the negotiation of 
this treaty, may best be told in the words of Dr. Williams. 
He says : " This intercourse has not been such as was 
calculated to impress the Chinese with a just idea of the 
British nation as a leading Christian people ; for the East 
India Company, which had a monopoly of the trade be- 
tween the two countries for nearly two centuries, sys- 
tematically opposed every effort to diffuse Christian 
doctrine and general knowledge among them (the 
Chinese) down to the end of their control in 1834." 

What British influence and action have been in the 
Chinese Empire since the date just mentioned, 1834, is 
described in detail by Dr. Hamilton Wright, in his ad- 
dress upon the " Opium Problem." 

There is no intention to assert that, during the sixty 
years of modern intercourse with foreign governments, 
the latter have had no causes of complaint against the 
Chinese Empire. Upon the contrary, such causes have 
been many, persistent, and serious. China has evaded 
and nullified treaty obligations, and, by devious ways and 
methods, destroyed the value of her pledges. As inti- 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 41 

mated at the outset, her constant disposition has been re- 
calcitrant in the extreme, and her unvarying attitude has 
been that of one whose friendship had been unwillingly- 
granted, and, but for fear of the consequences, would at 
once be withdrawn. 

But what thoughtful person, possessed of even a slight 
knowledge of human nature, could look for any dififerent 
attitude. The entire situation is so plain as to require 
hardly a word of explanation. Her only knowledge of 
the Western world had been gained by the contact and 
experiences already described. And when modern 
diplomatic relations were established, it was accompanied 
by force and, as every Chinaman will believe to the end 
of time, for the sole purpose of the profit to be derived 
from a traffic alike unwelcome and deadly to the entire 
race. Is there anything unnatural or impertinent in the 
inquiry, made by every intelligent Chinese, why, if opium 
is harmless and even wholesome, the government of 
Great Britain does not encourage the natives of India 
to use it, and so create a home market for the product? 
And, so long as the Chinese are human, and reason as 
do men of other races, under what peculiar mental proc- 
ess can they be expected to differentiate the modern 
European from his prototype, the earlier freebooter and 
pirate ? Modern modes of getting gain at the expense of 
others may be more quiet and gradual, and even more 
strictly within the lines of civilization, but they are more 
widespread in their fatal results. 

The whole point lies just here. If the same efiforts 
had been made by Great Britain to develop any honest 
commerce with China, it would at first have been opposed. 
But, gradually, the mutual benefits arising from it would 
have changed Chinese sentiment, for they are shrewd 
traders, and the empire would have come slowly, but 
willingly, into friendly intercourse and kindly relations 



42 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

with Europe and America. And if Great Britain had 
made the same efforts to develop honest commerce, not 
one-tenth of the complaints justly made against the 
Chinese Government would have arisen. 

Under the most favorable conditions, it was inevitable 
that a considerable amount of friction and disagreement 
should exist. For, when the detailed treaties of "amity 
and commerce," as they are called, were negotiated, 
practically at the point of the bayonet, it was thought 
necessary, and wisely so, to deprive the Emperor of 
China of two of the essential qualities of sovereignty. 
He was not allowed to fix the rate of export or import 
duty upon foreign-owned merchandise, and he was not 
allowed jurisdiction over the persons or property of 
foreigners who might be within the limits of his Empire. 
These conditions were intensely galling to the emperor, 
as they would be to any other monarch, and were only 
accepted under force. What but the narrowest possible 
interpretation of treaties, which contained such degrad- 
ing features, could be expected? What but friction and 
dispute were to be looked for in the enforcement of the 
two great departments of every general international 
compact, the regulation of commerce, and the protection 
and control of individuals? 

It is like gaining a breath of pure air, after breathing 
the poisonous fumes of a narcotic, to turn from the 
history of this wretched and disgraceful attempt to force 
opium upon an unwilling people, to the primary treaty 
negotiations between the United States and China. 
Caleb Gushing, that distinguished authority upon inter- 
national law, was the representative appointed for the 
purpose. He received the most courteous treatment at 
the hands of the Chinese authorities, negotiations were 
promptly begun, and the treaty was signed July 3, 1844. 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 43 

Because of its fullness of details and clearness of state- 
ment, it was for many years the final authority in set- 
tling all disputes, between the Chinese officials and 
foreigners of all nationalities, regarding treaty rights. 
A French envoy reached China in August of the same 
year, and the French treaty was signed in October, 1844. 
Of these two embassies. Dr. Williams, who was upon 
the spot at the time, says: "The gratification of the 
Chinese statesmen at finding that the missions from the 
American and French Governments were not sent, like 
the English expedition, to demand indemnity and the 
cession of an island, was great." The United States has 
always maintained the good opinion of the Chinese Gov- 
ernment, then and thus secured. But it ought to be said 
that whatever remissness in formulating demands France 
exhibited at that time, has been amply atoned for and 
balanced since. Treaties between other Western powers 
and China were not concluded until some years later. 
And all of these first compacts were, in a sense, tentative 
and preliminary. They did not bring foreign govern- 
ments into direct touch and communication with the Im^ 
perial head of the Chinese people. That was not ac- 
complished until 1861, when, as a result of the second 
opium war, a forced consent was given to the permanent 
residence of diplomatic representatives at Peking. 

Perhaps the most important period of the foreign rela- 
tions of China lies between 1861 and 1902. Ample 
material for volumes of the most interesting history may 
be found there. None of it, however, could be either 
rightly understood, or justly weighed, without some 
knowledge of the facts and events of the preceding cen- 
'turies, rather than years. Only a sentence or two, of 
the most condensed summary of this recent period, can 
be given here, in conclusion. 



44 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

The general attitude and disposition of the Chinese 
Government has been sufficiently described. And it 
ought to be said, in order to correct many current mis- 
statements, that, in the main, the authorities, in their 
policy and action, have been sim.ply the servants of 
Chinese public opinion. The policy of European powers 
has not been of a conciliatory character, but rather one 
of aggression, greed, and self-seeking. Foreign trade 
interests have been pressed, and insisted upon, when they 
forced the Chinese Government to discriminate against 
its own people ; and China has been forced to grant con- 
cessions to foreigners, which involved serious injury to 
native commerce. Pecuniary claims have been presented, 
and forced to a settlement, which no diplomat would dare 
whisper to an American or European Secretary of State. 
And if China, upon her part, has shown arrogance and 
conceit, the European representatives have talked threat- 
eningly, made a show of force, and, in general, assumed 
a constant air of patronage and proprietorship which has 
been insufferably vexatious to the Chinese. 

As has been said, Great Britain has persisted in her 
prosecution of the opium trade in the face of almost con- 
stant appeals from the emperor, has carried on a system 
of exploitation of the interior in the interests of British 
trade, as though it were her own soil, and not the home 
and property of a so-called " friendly power," and has 
shown her usual readiness to seize territory wherever it 
was consistent with a purely selfish policy to do so. Ger- 
many has been guilty of aggression upon the domain 
of the emperor. Russia has crowded down upon the 
north and west. And yet it ought to be said that the 
Chinese fear Russia less than any other European power, 
and have a kindlier — or rather, kss hostile — feeling to- 
ward her. And France has played a full part in the 
creation and maintenance of Chinese animosity, by a 



CHINA AND THE WESTERN WORLD 45 

policy identical with that just outlined. In particular, 
she has sustained the unwise demands of Catholic mis- 
sionaries, especially those in the south and west, for a 
sort of semi-political position, and for the right to inter- 
fere in civil matters between native converts and local 
authorities. 

In short, the entire attitude of the great European 
powers towards China has been selfishly aggressive and 
unendurable by the sensitive and proud-spirited Chinese. 
They have regarded that ancient empire as a cow to be 
milked, or butchered; as a goose to be plucked. As an 
English writer said, not long ago, in reviewing a book 
entitled " The Real Chinese Question," " The only ques- 
tion is, what the powers of Europe will decide to do 
with China." That statement correctly represents Euro- 
pean policy and action. And the Boxer movement was 
the inevitable result of it. The statement that it was 
caused, directly or indirectly by Protestant missionaries, 
is a baseless and wicked falsehood. The only wonder is 
not that it came, but that the coming was delayed so 
long. If the great powers of Europe had concurred, 
forty years since, in the humane and reasonable policy 
adopted and consistently followed by the United States, 
there would have been no Boxer movement, and no 
serious or irremediable friction, or conflict, between this 
great Oriental empire and the Western world. And 
when those powers will recognize the fact that the China- 
man is a man with a man's rights, among which is the 
right to the occupancy and possession of his own soil; 
that " China is for the Chinese," and not merely a 
treasure deposit for them, then better relations will 
come. 

When China is given such opportunity as, thanks to 
the initiative of the United States, was conceded to 
Japan, to develop and progress somewhat along her own 



46 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

lines, and in free conformity with her own ideas, then 
the growth of the empire will begin, the path of inter- 
national intercourse will be less vexed and stormy, and 
the story of the foreign relations of China will be a 
more pleasant story to tell. 



Ill 

,A SKETCH OF THE RELATIONS BETWEEN 
THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 

The intercourse between America and China con- 
stitutes only a single, and relatively a brief, episode in 
the history of the past century in Asia. It is inseparably 
connected with the relations of various European states 
with China, but some advantage may be derived from 
considering the story by itself. As illustrating the larger 
subject of the attitude of the Chinese toward all foreign 
nations it has certain features not to be found in their 
dealings with Europeans, while it shows in every incident 
their consistent determination to maintain the ideals of 
their ancient culture. The purpose of this paper is to 
review briefly a hundred and twenty years of recent 
history with the hope of finding at once some basis of 
American policy toward the Chinese Empire and some 
interpretation, if possible, of Chinese polity.^ 

As a race the Chinese possess many qualities of great 
economic value which make them a factor of significance 
in the industrial world of to-day. The question, how- 
ever, which attracts the speculative historian, relates 
rather to the influence of their past upon the mentality 
of the people. The place of China as a potential factor 
in the world's future, is evident enough even to those 
superficially acquainted with the country and its inhabit- 
ants. It remains to explain from our knowledge of her 

1 An admirable summary of American intercourse with China 
is to be found in General J. W. Foster's " American Diplomacy 
in the Orient," Boston, 1903. 

47 



48 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

history why she has thus far persisted in her opposition 
to Western peoples and in her indifference to their 
message, and then to determine^ if we may, what prospect 
there is for a change of attitude in the immediate future. 
The status of China among nations is not without prec- 
edent in history; it is interesting because she alone 
amongst great states has preserved into modern times 
the antique idea of isolation and self-sufficiency, and be- 
cause ages have hardened the habits of the multitude of 
individuals concerned. The shrewder and best informed 
among these individuals are now aware that something 
is wrong with their great civiHzation, but they rebel as 
yet, for the most part, against those who insist upon 
applying unpalatable European ideals as a panacea for 
all their ills. These ideals are hateful to them in es- 
sence because they contravene the basic principles upon 
which their own glorious past was established. The 
West has long emphasized the individual as the social 
unit, and the individual when spurred to personal ambi- 
tion is the dynamic factor in the history of its progress. 
The East in abiding by the family as the unit, maintain- 
ing the principles of the past, refuses to advance beyond 
the point which the past has considered the limit of 
safety. It is as difficult for the one as for the other 
to refrain from exalting its own superiority. It is hard 
for each to understand, harder still to sympathize ; but it 
is at least possible for the unprejudiced observer to com- 
prehend from these premises how the idea of progress 
and improvement in international intercourse, symbolic 
of the hopeful West to-day, must to the righteousness of 
old-fashioned China appear simply a sacrilege because it 
disregards precedent. Representatives of Christendom 
m dealing with the Chinese have for the most part esti- 
mated them by Western standards, unconscious of the 
difference in values between the two civilizations. It is 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 49 

only at rare intervals that individuals of strong sympathy 
and breadth of view have modified the antagonism in- 
evitable between self-reliant and widely separated races. 

With this as an introduction it may be easier for us 
to undertake a consideration of some phases of American 
intercourse with the Chinese. International relations 
between the two peoples began at the opening of our 
national life. At the conclusion of our Revolutionary 
War, England's colonial system, which had forbidden all 
outside trade with her American colonies, could no longer 
prevent our ships from going abroad, but the removal 
of this check at the same time closed the hitherto lucra- 
tive commerce of these colonies with the West Indies. 
The Empress of China, from New York, was the first 
Yankee ship to invade the exclusive region of the Eng- 
lish East India Company, by arriving at Canton with a 
load of ginseng in the summer of 1784. As a beginning 
this epoch-making voyage may be considered most 
auspicious. Shaw, the supercargo, says : " The Chinese 
were very indulgent toward her. . . . Styled us the 
new people ; and when by the map we conveyed to them 
an idea of the extent of our country with its present and 
increasing population, they were highly pleased at the 
prospect of so considerable a market for the productions 
of theirs." He did not understand as well as we do to- 
day that this was the complacency exhibited by a few 
local traders welcoming the prospect of some increase 
in their traffic and perquisites. It was a long time before 
official China realized that anything had happened in the 
advent of a new nation thus quietly heralded. 

Shaw's expedition, if it may be so called, met with the 
approval of his own countrymen and trade between 
America and China began with a rush. Profits, however, 
fell because there was no adequate supply of articles in 
either country which were demanded by the other, but 



50 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

two important causes maintained it for nearly half a 
century. The first of these was the turmoil of the 
Napoleonic wars, which after 1795 made the Americans 
practically common carriers of the world. A second 
cause was that derived from a development of the 
gathering of fur seals and sandal wood, both of them 
highly prized in the Chinese market. The chief reason, 
however, for the success of American traders in the East 
must be found in their entire freedom from government 
restraint at a time when all Europeans were controlled 
by the monopolies given to their various East India com- 
panies. As an indication of the relative importance of 
China to America a hundred years ago and now, it is 
rather suggestive to learn that the thirty-seven vessels, 
carrying in 1805 nearly five and three-quarters millions' 
worth of goods to Canton, represented a larger fraction 
of our total commerce than our trade with the whole em- 
pire to-day. So far as it went, moreover, it was a profit- 
able business despite the quantity of silver which it took 
to Asia. The silver imported to balance American trade 
with China averaged over two and a half millions an- 
nually in the thirty years down to 1827, reaching a 
maximum of seven and a half millions in 1818, but the 
import of opium from India eventually turned the balance 
of trade against China until the drain of silver from that 
country became one of the ostensible causes for the 
rupture with Great Britain. 

For profitable though the trade was for the time be- 
ing, it must not be imagined that it bulked very large in 
the imagination of our forefathers who were occupied in 
exploiting their own great domain. A trader was given 
the nominal position of American consul at Canton, but 
his powers were confined to ordinary commercial busi- 
ness, and he had no real status as a diplomatic agent. It 
is evident that the United States as a nation did not 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 51 

care to incur the responsibilities of diplomatic inter- 
course with China until it had made its way across the 
American continent and faced her from across the 
Pacific. 

The only episode which ever caused any real contention 
between America and the Chinese previous to the Opium 
War was the apprehension of one Terranova, an Italian 
sailor, who in 1821 had to be handed over from an 
American ship to the Chinese authorities on charge of 
homicide. The poor fellow was executed, as our coun- 
trymen thought, most brutally, but they were well aware 
that they lived in Canton only upon sufferance and under 
Chinese law. The contempt of the Chinese for all 
foreigners as barbarians, and the lack of any means of 
adjusting disputes between nations who had no diplo- 
matic agents, made it necessary for America, unless in- 
deed she wished to declare war, to keep aloof from the 
Chinese Government and throw her traders living in the 
Empire upon their own resources. There was some 
similarity in the situation to conditions on our frontier. 
Criticism, indeed, was heard in America of the English 
policy which ultimately took up the gauge of war and 
came to blows with the Chinese in 1840. But whatever 
may be said for the morals of the famous opium-war 
controversy, the Americans showed no hesitation in 
carrying goods in their vessels during the war and in 
taking advantage of the fortunate outcome. 

After the conclusion of peace at Nanking in 1842, 
Admiral Kearney of the American squadron, then visit- 
ing Canton, induced the viceroy of the two southern 
provinces to memorialize the palace to place America 
on the same footing as England in securing the advan- 
tages of that treaty. One of the British commissioners 
declared that to this man was due the credit of throwing 
open the five treaty ports to all foreigners alike. It 



52 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

might be an interesting speculation to consider what 
China might have done had she bethought herself in this 
crisis of a selfish compact between England and herself 
against all other trade competitors. It is worth remark- 
ing that China on this and other great occasions has ex- 
hibited a breadth of view curiously in contrast with her 
astuteness and narrowness in many small affairs. 

In Caleb Cushing, the commissioner sent by the United 
States in 1844 to begin our diplomatic history there and 
negotiate a treaty with China, we have the first of a 
series of Americans remarkably endowed by nature to 
deal with the rather elastic conditions of Asiatic diplo- 
macy. The Cushing treaty negotiated with Kiying, the 
Chinese commissioner, bestowed upon Americans all 
the rights and privileges which had been secured by 
British military operations. It is chiefly notable for com- 
prising these in language at once so felicitous and suc- 
cinct as to have rendered the document, negotiated by a 
Boston lawyer, the model for many subsequent conven- 
tions between China and foreign powers. 

With this treaty began the residence of Westerners at 
five places along the China coast under the government 
and control of their own consuls. It was the condition 
of extra territoriality, familiar now to Europeans in 
Asia, but until that time confined to a few scattered settle- 
ments outside of Christendom. The Chinese conceded 
this right to all Christian peoples who asked for it, al- 
most as a matter of course, as had been the case in 
Turkey long before, and was to be the case in Japan. 

In order to understand the readiness with which this 
important privilege was yielded as a mere by-product of 
the war, we must recall the premise with which I began — 
China constituted a society working automatically, ob- 
durate to new ideas, capable only of applying ancient 
precedents. It was easier to award the " barbarians " 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 53 

the treatment meted out to certain recalcitrant aboriginal 
tribes in the interior, allowing them self-government 
under various restrictions, than to study and comprehend 
the complex nature of the irrepressible visitors from be- 
yond the ocean. Though conscious of its weakness on 
the sea, the Chinese Government still felt that it had 
nothing to learn from the West. It had been defeated 
but not convinced. The autocrat cooped up in his palace 
at Peking cherished the foolish phantom of a state su- 
preme above all other states in the world, yet in his 
vanity he was yielding to the detested strangers rights 
under which they were presently to defy him in his own 
domain. In this crisis of national life we realize there- 
fore that the chief menace to China's existence arose 
from her fidelity to her own ancient institutions. Had 
she been less thoroughly imbued with the idea of her 
high culture she might have bent to the storm and taken 
counsel in her adversity. But she refused to learn. 
Weakened by political corruption and vitiated by the 
new vice which was stealing away the brains of her 
officials, she persisted in an attitude of non possumns 
toward the Europeans who would willingly have helped 
her, and so drifted on the way to destruction. 

Throughout this pathetic phase in the distress of a 
great nation the policy of America was from the first 
one of friendship. The interest in our country in 
preaching the gospel in Asia was of itself sufficient to 
render Americans sympathetic with a helpless though 
obdurate people, and the cause of missions has influenced 
public opinion more in America than elsewhere. But 
however great the sympathy of Christian teachers with 
the needs and helplessness of China, it was from the first 
obvious that she required a degree of compulsion from 
abroad sufficient to force her away from her vain belief 
in the efficacy of her ancient system. Yet it is a danger- 



54 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

ous thing when any nation undertakes the work of the 
schoohnaster. No nation in the past has emerged very 
creditably from the self-appointed task of instructing 
another ; the teacher soon becomes the bully, punitive ex- 
peditions turn into predatory raids, and national char- 
acter under the strain of easy victories deteriorates. As 
the figment of China's supposed strength was dissipated, 
representatives from all Christian states showed indica- 
tions of the immoralities involved in this peculiar inter- 
national relation. Perhaps the mere fact that Americans 
did little at this time in the East, owing to the engross- 
ing problems of politics at home, may account for the 
creditable record of our country at this period. We 
need not boast, but we may at least declare that we 
emerged as little corrupted as any of the partners con- 
cerned in the great game. It is true, nevertheless, that 
all Christian peoples alike must be blamed for adopting 
an attitude of hauteur and disdain" toward the Chinese. 
Our Minister, Mr. George F. Seward, a few years later 
than this epoch, rightly called a halt to this attitude of 
our own people when he wrote, " The sooner we rise 
to the idea of dealing with this government as being 
actuated by very much the same motives of dignity, 
patriotism and public policy which actuate other govern- 
ments, the sooner we shall be able to place our relations 
upon an enduring basis of good will and common in- 
terests." 

For a dozen years after the conclusion of Caleb Cush- 
ing's treaty, the United States contented itself with 
representatives who were entitled Commissioners in 
China. The first of these, Mr. John W. Davis, was 
chiefly occupied in installing our consuls and defining 
their judicial functions under the system of extra terri- 
toriality. He was followed by Humphrey Marshall and 
Robert M. McLane, both of whom failed to meet the 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 55 

famous Viceroy Yeh in Canton, or to make the least 
impression in resisting his poHcy of studied insult in 
respect to all foreigners. The latter joined with British 
and French representatives in a visit to Taku in 1854 in 
order to meet a Chinese commissioner there, and plan 
with him some revision of the existing treaty. The at- 
tempt met with no success whatever, but in spite of this 
check, it is creditable to our representative that in his 
disappointment he had the fairness to insist upon the 
payment by American merchants in Shanghai of customs 
duties which had been withheld from the Chinese Govern- 
ment during the period of the rebel occupation of that 
city. Under similar circumstances the British merchants 
in the same place had refused to do so. 

Our relations with the Chinese officials were gravely 
threatened in the period following the '' Arrow " incident 
by the opening of the guns on the Bogue forts upon a 
United States warship. The forts were promptly si- 
lenced by the only military operation which Americans 
ever undertook against the Chinese until the year 1900. 
The Chinese, however, appear to have been as clearly 
conscious of the nature of this offense as the Americans ; 
and no ill-will resulted from a gross insult promptly 
avenged. Had our representative, Dr. Peter Parker, 
then had his way, we should, with some justification, 
have joined in the military expedition of France and 
Great Britain against the Chinese, but to Dr. Parker's 
suggestion of co-operation, Secretary Marcy replied that 
" The British Government evidently had objects beyond 
those contemplated by the United States and we ought 
not to be drawn along with it, however anxious it may 
be for our co-operation." This attitude of America in 
the Far East has been consistently observed ever since 
that time. The crisis, however, was much too important 
for the United States to ignore. Our new representa- 



56 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

tive, Mr. William B. Reed, was sent to China with the 
higher title of Minister Plenipotentiary to press negotia- 
tions by peaceful methods only. He united with the 
allies, convinced of the futility of treating China like any 
ordinary power, and advised his government to advance 
upon Peking " with a decisive tone and available force." 
But when he in turn asked for the necessary power to 
enforce coercion upon an obdurate court, Secretary Cass 
replied that the President was not yet willing to ask 
Congress to seek redress by resort to arms. It was a 
tempting opportunity and might have been morally 
justified, but America held her hand except to endorse 
by her minister's presence the claims of the West to 
free intercourse. 

The expedition to Tientsin which followed involved 
the American envoy in an uncomfortable and anomalous 
position as regards his colleagues. The situation was 
greatly ameliorated by the suavity of Baron Gros, the 
French representative, and the co-operation of Count 
Putiatine, the Russian minister. We must not blame 
too severely the reserve of Lord Elgin, remembering the 
great responsibilities committed to his charge. But it 
remains to be said that a more genial diplomatist than he 
might have secured from his coadjutors more sym- 
pathetic support.^ America's contribution to the negotia- 
tions at Tientsin was chiefly the acknowledgment of 
religious liberty obtained from the Chinese, the Magna 
Charta in some sense of all present missionary opera- 
tions conducted in that country. New trade regulations 
involving a revision of the tariff were settled subse- 
quently in Shanghai. In all, the American indemnities 
for losses to the merchants and missionaries before the 

2 A brief documentary history of the negotiations is con- 
tained in C. S. Leavenworth's " Arrow War with China," (Sam- 
son, Low, 1901), a little volume not sufficiently well known. 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 57 

war amounted to only $735,000; of this an unexpended 
balance of $453,400 was returned to China by our gov- 
ernment in 1885. 

Mr. Reed's successor, Robert E. Ward, arrived at Taku 
in the summer of 1859 with the European allies on his 
way to exchange the ratified treaty in Peking. It was 
at this time that the sudden check of the second battle 
of the Taku Forts occurred, when Commodore Tatnall 
valorously but with doubtful propriety assisted in tow- 
ing some of the British boats into action on the plea that 
"blood is thicker than water." As we were not in- 
volved otherwise in this conflict, there appeared to be no 
reason why our representative should decline the ofifer 
of safe conduct on the part of the Chinese authorities 
to Peking by another route. In the long controversy 
which ensued at the capital between our minister and the 
statesmen at the court over the question of Audience 
Ceremonial, appears once more the China of immutable 
institutions face to face with the new world. Although 
deahng with a matter which most Americans would have 
considered a mere trifle of etiquette, the legation was 
fortunately alive to the extreme importance of the de- 
bate. Thereby depended the fate of future diplomatic 
relations between China and the West. It was her de- 
sire to induce compliance with the ancient ceremonial 
usages of her court and impose the famous kotow upon 
the ambassador approaching the throne in order to es- 
tablish a high precedent, and thus in her own expression 
" to save her face " before her own people. There can 
be no question of the genuineness of Chinese civilization 
when we recall that this little company of twenty Amer- 
icans, representatives of those hated foreigners who had 
already inflicted so much disaster upon the Chinese, were 
entertained in perfect safety in the heart of the capital 
and allowed to withdraw without embarrassment after 



S^ CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

refusing compliance with the dearest wish of the Em- 
peror and his supporters. A barbarous state would never 
have shown such moderation. The rejection of all offers 
to compromise the ceremonials brought about no show 
of truculence or any acts of petty spite on the part of 
the court. The President's letter to the Emperor was 
honorably received by Kweiliang, the highest official in 
the Empire, but an Imperial audience was refused, and 
the exchange of ratified treaties was relegated to Peh- 
tang, the town on the seacoast where the party had 
landed. 

Mr. Ward was ridiculed and even reviled by his com- 
patriots as well as by Europeans, for the visit to Peking 
and its apparent failure. But he was right; in some 
senses it may even be said that he accomplished more by 
the exercise of patience under peculiar provocation, and 
without the support of armed force, than the allies and 
their military array. His refusal to perform the kotow 
meant to the Chinese a refusal to acknowledge the 
sacrosanct character of the imperial ruler, and conse- 
quently the supremacy of the Chinese Emperor over 
other sovereigns. Even when, as they were made aware 
of the material strength of Western nations, they re- 
luctantly conceded the equality of the Treaty Powers, the 
Chinese officials declared that they would perform the 
kotow and even burn incense before foreign sovereigns 
abroad as testifying to their conviction of the divinity 
of a ruler's person. " It is the same reverence that we 
pay to the gods," said one of them, and after such wit- 
ness to the religious character of the homage demanded, 
one may comprehend the abyss which separated the East 
from the West in this commencement of their diplomatic 
intercourse. It is the duty as well as the right of a 
nation to defend its honor ; in acknowledging this, while 
refusing to compromise the dignity of a Christian 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 59 

plenipotentiary, Mr. Ward established a precedent, under 
circumstances which seemed at the moment to involve 
him in grave personal risk, that reflects great credit upon 
his competence and temper.^ 

The second period of China's political education on the 
part of the West ends with the Anglo-French expedition 
of i860, in which America had no share. This cam- 
paign avenged the disaster at the Taku Forts, and estab- 
lished the right of permanent diplomatic residence in 
Peking, as an effectual guarantee of official intercourse 
upon terms of equality. The instrument of this inter- 
course was the Tsung-li Yamen, or Bureau of Foreign 
Affairs, in which, after the death of the Emperor Hsien- 
fung the same year. Prince Kung and Wensiang were 
the controlling spirits guiding China along her difficult 
path. The American envoy who reached China to take 
up diplomatic relations under the new conditions, found 
at first little sympathy or support from the ministers of 
other nations who were entering their new legations at 
the same time. There was a general disposition, not yet 
wholly dissipated, to assume that Asiatics understand 
only the argument of force, and to consider that Mr. 
Ward had discredited his country by a tactical error in 
returning from the capital without exchanging ratifica- 
tions. The man who took up the diplomatic work at 
this juncture had, in addition to the repugnance of the 
Chinese, to face the critical attitude of Europeans in 

3 U. S. Senate Ex. Doc. 36th Congr., ist Ses., No. 30, pp. 
569-624. S. W. Williams, Narrative of the American Embassy 
to Peking, Jour. China Br. R. A. See, Vol. I, 1859. W. A, 
P. Martin, Cycle of Cathay, 1896, pp. 143-203. Gen. Foster, 
American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 252, while declaring that 
Ward " bore himself with dignity and self-possession " con- 
siders his treatment at Peking an affront to himself and his 
country. It does not appear that the Chinese intended it to 
be so. 



6o CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

China. It was not a delightful prospect. Fortunately, 
not only for America but for China, this minister proved 
himself to be possessed of a temperament that accepted 
without prejudice the idea of including men of all races 
and colors in the common family of civilized nations. 
This was Anson Burlingame, whose presence in Peking 
at this crisis might fairly be considered providential. At 
a moment when the Imperial Court was in terror of 
further aggression from abroad and rebellion at home, 
and foreign merchants clamored for unwarrantable 
liberties in trade, he made it clear to the Tsung-li Yamen 
that his government opposed on principle any policy of 
spoliation toward China, and called the attention of 
foreigners to the grave dangers attending illegal attempts 
to exploit China for selfish aims. His idea was essen- 
tially the same as the " open door " policy of America 
announced forty years later. As a result of the friendly 
impression he produced upon the Chinese authorities, he 
was asked, upon his resignation after six years, to become 
the head of a Chinese embassy to all the Treaty Powers — 
a remarkable instance of the power of sympathy and 
cordiality. 

The appearance of Anson Burlingame upon the arena 
of Asiatic politics was, and long remained, a subject of 
conventional pleasantry among Europeans unacquainted 
with certain types of American character. His friendli- 
ness and optimism, shown alike to Caucasians and 
Asiatics, were held by those accustomed to old-fashioned 
methods in diplomacy, as too good to be true. Presently, 
however, his sincerity so impressed those who came inti- 
mately into contact with him that he was able to influence 
his diplomatic colleagues in Peking to accede to his 
" policy of co-operation," in further dealing with the 
government of China. This, and the policy inaugurated 
by Great Britain, of holding the Imperial authority and 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 6i 

not local governors responsible for observance of treaties, 
may be called, perhaps without exaggeration, the turning 
point in China's foreign relations. It meant a substitu- 
tion of fair dealing for sheer force. As the most im- 
portant contribution of an American at this time toward 
a solution of the political complexities which confronted 
alike all civilized nations, it deserves an explanation in 
his own words: 

" It was not (he declares in his first speech made after 
landing in California in May, 1868), until recently, that 
the West was in proper relations with that empire 
[China]. Affairs went on upon a system of misunder- 
standing, resulting in mutual misfortune, down till i860, 
when the representatives of the Treaty Powers met with 
the great men who carry on the affairs of the Chines-e 
Empire. Coming into personal relations with them, they 
had occasion to modify their views as to the capacity 
and as to the intentions of these men. And they were 
led straightway to consider the question : How should 
they substitute for the old, false system of affairs, one 
of fair diplomatic action? They addressed themselves 
fairly to the discussion of that question ; and that dis- 
cussion resulted in the adoption of what is called the ' co- 
operative policy.' That policy is briefly this : An agree- 
ment on the part of the Treaty Powers to act together on 
all material questions ; to stand together in defense of 
their treaty rights, but determined at the same time to 
give those treaties a generous construction ; determined 
to maintain the foreign system of customs, and to sup- 
port it in a pure administration and upon a cosmopolitan 
basis; an agreement to take no cession of territory at 
the treaty ports, and never to menace the Territorial In- 
tegrity of China." ^ 

It is as unfair to measure the real significance of the 
* Official Papers of the Chinese Legation, Berlin, 1870, p. 4. 



62 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Burlingame mission to the Treaty Powers by its im- 
mediate results, as it would be to estimate the extraordi- 
nary ability of its leader by the newspaper ridicule which 
followed his optimistic speeches. In some respects the 
Europeans were as blind to the crisis in China's affairs 
as she was to their theories of statecraft. China had 
just passed, in the Taiping uprising, through the most 
alarming social disturbance that the Empire had known 
since the coming of the Manchus. The Arrow War 
had been sprung upon her in her emergency, yet she had 
been saved as by a miracle from the terror without, and 
these same " barbarians " who had attacked her with 
such a shameless lack of justification, had afterwards 
both refused to recognize the Rebels, and later had 
countenanced the equipment of the Ever Victorious Force 
under Western officers and drill. This force, first en- 
listed by the American, Frederick E. Ward, and subse- 
quently made famous by General Gordon, materially 
hastened the conclusion of the rebellion, though it is idle 
now to repeat the claim made by most accounts published 
in English that this result was accomplished by its un- 
aided efforts. Certainly the motive promoting the mis- 
sion was a hope on the part of a few Chinese statesmen 
that the West might listen to an appeal for patience and 
fair play, and the hope was as surely instilled by the 
magnetic influence of a man whose humanity was in- 
vincible — "a power (as Mr. Blaine described it) growing 
out of a mysterious gift, partly intellectual, partly spirit- 
ual, and largely physical." Behind this personality was, 
happily, the good will already accruing to a Western 
Government, disavowing all territorial ambitions in 
China, and not herself an object, at this time, of jealousy 
among European powers. 

Unfortunately death cut short in its prime a brilliant 
career. Mr. Burlingame died in St. Petersburg before 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 63 

accomplishing his tour through the chief European 
capitals, or being able to use his wonderful influence 
upon the palace officials after returning to Peking. 
China lost in him her only helper. 

The text of the Burlingame Treaty is easily accessible 
and, as it became in time the object of some contumely, 
I might almost add, too well known to need quotation 
in full. Its eight articles, drafted by Secretary Seward, 
(i) recognize China's right of eminent domain over all 
her territory, even where occupied by foreign traders; 
(2) concede her sole control over inland navigation; (3) 
give a right to appoint consuls to American ports; (4) 
grant protection to foreign religions and cemeteries; 
(5) endorse naturalization rights and forbid the coolie 
trade ; (6) give reciprocal rights of travel and residence 
to citizens of each party in the country of the other; (7) 
open all schools in each country to children of either 
nationality; and (8) acknowledge the right of the Em- 
peror to make internal improvements unobstructed by 
foreign interference. 

As it is the underlying idea of this compact that con- 
cerns us just now, rather than its treatment by its 
enemies, we may as well hear it expounded by Mr. Bur- 
lingame himself: 

" In the first place, it declares the neutrality of the 
Chinese waters in opposition to the pretensions of the ex- 
territoriality doctrine, that inasmuch as the persons and 
the property of the people of the foreign powers were 
under the jurisdiction of those powers, therefore it was 
the right of parties contending with each other to attack 
each other in the Chinese waters, thus making those 
waters the place of their conflict. This treaty traverses 
all such absurd pretensions. It strikes down the so- 
called concession doctrines, under which the nationals 
of different countries located upon spots of land in the 



64 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

treaty ports, had come to believe that they could take 
jurisdiction there not only of their own nationals, not 
only of the persons and property of their own people, 
but take jurisdiction of the Chinese and the people of 
other countries. When this question was called under 
discussion and referred to the home governments, not by 
the Chinese originally, but by those foreign nations that 
felt that their treaty rights were being abridged by these 
concession doctrines, the distant foreign countries could 
not stand the discussion for a moment. And I aver that 
every Treaty Power has abandoned the concession doc- 
trines, though some of their officials in China at the 
present time undertake to contend for them, undertake 
to expel the Chinese, to attack the Chinese, to protect 
the Chinese, although the territory did not belong to 
them. China has never abandoned her eminent domain, 
never abandoned on that territory her jurisdiction; and 
I trust she never will. 

"Again, this treaty recognizes China as an equal 
among the nations, in opposition to the old doctrine that 
because she was not a Christian nation, she could not be 
placed in the roll of nations. . . . 

" There is another article which is also important to 
China. It has been the habit of the foreigners in China 
to lecture the Chinese and to say what they should do and 
what they should not do; in fact, to prefer almost a de- 
mand, and say when they should build railways, when 
they should build telegraphs ; and, in fact, there has been 
an attempt to take entire possession of their affairs. 
This treaty denounces all such pretensions. It says 
particularly that it is for the Chinese themselves to deter- 
mine when they will initiate reforms — when they will 
build and when they will refuse to build — that they are 
the masters of their own affairs ; that it is for them to 
make commercial regulations, and to do whatever they 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 65 

will, which is not in violation of the laws of nations, 
within their own territory. I am glad to say that is 
in the treaty ; and while the treaty expresses the opinion 
of the United States in favor of giving to China the 
control of her own affairs, it assumes that China is to 
progress, and it offers to her all the resources of Western 
science, and asks other nations to do the same. The 
United States have asked nothing for themselves. I am 
proud of it. I am proud that this country has made a 
treaty which is, every line of it, in the present interests 
of China, though in the resulting interests of all man- 
kind. ... I know this treaty will be attacked: you 
will wonder at it. It will be attacked by the spirit of the 
old indigo planters in India ; resisted by the spirit of the 
old opium smuggler in China. But notwithstanding all 
this, I beHeve that treaty or the principles of that treaty 
will make the tour of the world, because it is founded in 
right, it is founded in justice." ° 

If true statesmanship is loyalty to right and justice, the 
man who stood for this treaty was a statesman, if not a 
master politician. Politicians on our Pacific seaboard 
and elsewhere arose to revile, but in forty years we, as 
a nation, have come to see that the prospection of a Bur- 
lingame based upon eternal principles of righteousness, 
discerned the true policy to be pursued toward China. 
With the .passing of the sanguine ambassador, however, 
there came a change in the demeanor of America. 
Professor Mayo-Smith justly observes in this treaty the 
parting of the way between our previous and subsequent 
attitude toward China: 

"This treaty of 1868 marks the dividing line between 
two distinct and contradictory policies on the part of the 
United States toward the Chinese. Up to that time our 

5 Speech in Boston, Aug. 21, 1868, Ofific. Papers of the Chi. 
Leg., Berlin, 1870, p. 38. 



66 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

efforts had been directed toward compelling the Chinese 
to admit Americans to China for the pursuit of trade 
and commerce. In this contention, we placed ourselves 
on the broad platform of the right of free migration 
and the duty of international intercourse. Shortly after 
this declaration, we found that the influx of Chinese into 
this country was causing us inconvenience, and we im- 
mediately turned our backs on the principle of free migra- 
tion, and passed laws excluding the Chinese as effectually 
as they had ever excluded foreigners." ® 

California at the time of the Burlingame mission was 
on the eve of political and social changes which presently 
brought her people into serious opposition to its main 
idea of unchecked intercourse. The alteration of senti- 
ment toward the Chinese in the United States resulting 
from the outcry from the Pacific Coast, induced a change 
of front which Americans do not now greatly enjoy re- 
calling ; but with this we need not be concerned at present. 
The fact remained, so far as the two nations were in- 
volved, that a more generous policy than the old had 
been shaped for China. The man who had been chiefly 
instrumental in calling a halt to the familiar plan of 
aggravation and reprisal, was an American, and Amer- 
icans were thereafter believed by the more enlightened 
Chinese in Peking, to be in some way sponsors for the 
recall of China into the list of independent states. That 
we did not stultify ourselves before the Chinese as a re- 
sult of our treatment of their immigrants into this 
country in the decade following the treaty of 1868, was 
due chiefly, of course, to their general ignorance of events 
outside of their own domain, and their indifference to the 
fate of subjects leaving the Empire. Some grace, more- 

6 Emigration and Immigration, N. Y., 1895, p. 229. The Bur- 
lingame treaty was not ratified by China until sixteen months 
after it secured the approval of the Senate. 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 6^ 

' over, was given us from the rather melancholy fact which 
remained true in those evil days, that Americans were, on 
the whole, the least contemptuous and truculent of the 
foreigners in China. The merchants of other countries 
there wanted radical changes and were unwilling to give 
anything in return. They both despised and mistrusted 
the Chinese, and frankly advocated the substitution of 
brute force for diplomacy. As to the generous faith of 
Burlingame, " All who are conversant with China, they 
wrote, regard Mr. Burlingame's mission as suspicious in 
its origin, mischievous in its progress, and likely in its 
results to prove disastrous to all countries connected for 
commercial purposes with China." ^ Their opposition in 
the ended decided the British Government to refuse to 
ratify the Alcock Convention of 1869, revising the treaty 
of Tientsin.^ The discussions involved in negotiating 
this document are of interest as revealing the chief de- 
sires of the Chinese to restore their national prestige ; 
these were abolition of extra-territorial privileges, pro- 
hibition of opium, and the withdrawal of missionaries 
from the interior. To gain these points, or even to ad- 
vance them, they were willing to promise much to the 
foreigners, but so long as European traders maintained 
the attitude of v<s victis, any advantages to be hoped for 
from compromises were lost. 

But vicious merchants were not the only cause of 
shipwreck of a more merciful political idea. The Tien- 
tsin massacre of 1870 showed that the dual nature of the 
Chinese Government, involving different aims of a central 

"^ Pari. Papers, Ixxiii, Memorials of Chambers of Commerce 
in China, 1867-68. 

* Pari. Papers, Ixix and Ixx, 1870 and 1871, Treaty of Tien- 
tsin, and Correspondence respecting the Revision, summarized 
in A. J. Sargent, Anglo-Chinese Commerce and Diplomacy, 
Oxford, 1907, pp. 152-175. 



68 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

and a local authority had been left untouched by the new 
diplomacy. There were, in fact, even greater difficulties 
in the way of overcoming prejudice against aliens in 
China than in California. The massacre itself was of a 
sort which has become pretty familiar in the East; a 
credulous and fearful community hounded on to pillage 
and murder by agents who remained concealed, a local 
administration desirous for its own ends of hiding the 
real culprits, and back-stairs influence with the Palace 
impeding the efforts of the Government officials to meet 
the inevitable demands of the outraged foreigners. In 
the old days before official China recognized its obliga- 
tions to foreign governments, it had been necessary to 
summarily punish breaches of treaty by using force 
against its immediate offenders. Thus foreigners had 
got to disregard the Imperial authority, and expect un- 
due advantage from exercise of the " gun-boat policy," 
after the manner of extra dividends declared on highly 
speculative stocks. By the creation of the Tsung-li 
Yamen, however, China had expressly recognized its 
political responsibilities. It then became properly the 
aim of foreign powers to strengthen the central authority. 
They had to do so in the face of the claims of their own 
nationals with selfish ambitions. The new phase of 
political relationships was unpopular with the traders in 
proportion as they had made use of their unfair advan- 
tages in encountering native competitors.*' Hence arose 

9 Consul Alcock draws a striking picture of the foreign com- 
munity in China in the sixties. " The worthless character of 
a numerous gathering of foreigners of all nations, under no 
efifective control, is a national reproach as well as a public 
calamity. They dispute the field of commerce with honester 
men, and convert privileges of access and trade into means of 
fraud and violence. In this career of license, unchecked by any 
fear of their own governments, and protected in a great de- 
gree by treaties from the action of the native authorities, the 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 69 

a factor which, though negative in its operation, may be 
called one of some effectiveness in defining American 
policy in China. Immediately after the opening of 
Peking, America, being plunged in a civil war, had no 
forces at her disposal to exert pressure upon the Chinese. 
If there was to be international competition for trade 
supremacy in the East upon the basis of superior armed 
force she was hopelessly discounted. She had therefore 
everything to gain from a policy of supporting a supreme 
Imperial authority to be held responsible for the acts of 
subordinates, and from inducing her colleagues to do 
likewise. Her argument to Great Britain did not need 
to be a selfish one, nor was it a mere appeal to friendly 
consideration. The end of a policy of pin-pricks and 
persistent demands for more concessions was inevitably 
war and the disintegration of China. If a weak China 
involved the precipitation of a new Eastern Question, 
England with her responsibilities elsewhere was bound 
to be among the first to prevent the incalculable damage 
which might be expected from such a result. The co- 
operation of Russia and France followed, chiefly because 
Russia was content for the time in building Vladivostok, 
and France after 1870 was practically eliminated from 
the galaxy of predatory powers. In this review it be- 
comes evident at once that support of the Imperial au- 
thority in the Taiping uprising was most logically 
forced upon the chief foreign representatives in China, 
and that, in general, Burlingame's plan of saving China 
was recognized as the only one consistent with the com- 
mon safety of all concerned. 

Chinese are the first and greatest, but by no means the only 
sufferers. There is no government or nation of the great Euro- 
pean family that does not suffer in character, and in so far as 
they have any interests at stake in China, in these also both 
immediately and prospectively." 



70 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST, 

The chief blemish in the conduct of American rela- 
tions with China is, of course, our treatment of her sub- 
jects in the United States. I have no excuse or palliation 
to offer for conduct in which our national honor has been 
compromised for the sake of a group of unscrupulous 
politicians in the Pacific Coast States, but it is at the same 
time true that to our previous fairness toward China has 
been due her patience under indignities received at our 
hands. Unhappily for our own credit, it is now evident 
that as a people, we spoiled our case with China by mere 
blundering. Had political societies and State legisla- 
tures been sufficiently far-sighted to restrain their im- 
patience in the presence of a supposed menace of in- 
vasion by Chinese workmen, it would at any moment 
have been possible to adjust the matter of Chinese im- 
migration with the Government in Peking. As it was, 
we placed ourselves in the wrong, violating our treaty 
stipulations while insisting that China should fulfill hers. 
In spite, nevertheless, of just causes for resentment, the 
Chinese authorities, mindful of past mercies, have acquit- 
ted themselves with decorum and conceded to us the 
further restrictions demanded of them. Their conduct 
is a notable instance of the political value of long-con- 
tinued friendly relations when unexpected circumstances 
may suddenly threaten to overturn them. 

I shall attempt nothing more here than a cursory notice 
of some features of this unpleasant subject. After some 
radical legislation proposed in Congress in open disre- 
gard of international law had aroused the better senti- 
ment of the American people, as shown in the endorse- 
ment of President Hayes' action vetoing the Fifteen 
Passenger bill of 1879, some modification was confessedly 
necessary in the Burlingame treaty. To effect this the 
Angell commission was sent to Peking in 1880 to nego- 
tiate certain changed provisions. So delicate was the 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 71 

political situation at home at this time that the com- 
mission actually arrived in China without any specific 
instructions as to what these changes should comprise.^" 
At the end of the negotiations these gentlemen procured 
the consent of the Chinese Government to clauses en- 
abling the President and Congress to limit or suspend 
the immigration of Chinese artisans and laborers into 
America for a reasonable period whenever they thought 
necessary. " Reasonable " was afterwards taken to mean 
about ten years, though some difference of opinion was 
expressed as to its proper interpretation. In the course 
of a few years both Hayes and Arthur vetoed bills on 
the ground that twenty years was a violation of the 
treaty. The success of this commission was due partly 
to a desire of the Chinese Government to keep its sub- 
jects at home and to its wish for American support in 
prohibiting the import of opium into China. The opium 
clause, it may be added in passing, was hardly more than 
an expression of good- will on the part of Americans who, 
though somewhat compromised by individual traders, had 
no interest as a people in the opium trade ; but it served 
an excellent turn.^^ 

During the course of the following decade, gross frauds 
in the return of Chinese laborers who were readmitted 
to the United States were claimed to actually nullify the 
effect of this treaty. To remedy this defect, the Chinese 
minister at Washington negotiated in 1888 a new treaty 
restricting the privilege of return to Chinese owning at 
least $1,000 or having families in the United States. In 
return provision was then made for an indemnity cover- 
ing outrages which had been committed against Chinese 

i<> C. Holcombe, The Outlook, April 23, 1904, pp. 993-4. 

11 U. S. Foreign Relations, 1881, p. 200. Comments covering 
the opium clause in the treaty are rather significantly omitted 
in the dispatch of the Commission as published. 



72 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

subjects in Wyoming, Tacoma and other places. Under 
pressure from the Pacific States, in the subsequent Presi- 
dential campaign and while this treaty was being con- 
sidered by the Chinese Government, the so-called Scott 
Act was passed in Congress prohibiting altogether the 
admission of Chinese laborers, a rude violation of the 
treaty conditions which President Cleveland signed, 
however, upon the curious plea that China had delayed 
too long in ratifying the compact. A similar treaty was, 
however, more decently negotiated and ratified in 1894 
upon substantially the old terms. Again a new bill pro- 
hibiting immigration was with difficulty defeated in the 
Senate when, as a substitute, the Piatt Amendment, con- 
tinuing in force, stringent provisions against possible 
fraud, provided for the situation until a new treaty should 
be negotiated ten years later. There were indications 
at this time that despite impulsive speeches in Congress 
and in the Far West, sober public opinion in America 
favored adherence to treaty obligations, while fear of the 
so-called " Yellow Peril " was gradually dying away as 
the influx of Chinese continually decreased.^^ 

12 Mrs. Coolidge's Chinese Immigration, N. Y., 1909, fairly 
summarizes all the legislation upon this matter and tells the 
ignoble story with sufficient fullness so far as California is con- 
cerned. See also Chinese and Japanese Immigration, in Am. 
Acad. Pol. and Soc. Science, for September, 1909. Mr. S. W. 
Nickerson in the N. Am. Rev., for Dec, 1908, gives the foUov/- 
ing summary of administrative tergiversation in one particular: 
" In the summer of 1882, Attorney-General Brewster decided 
(17 Op. Atty. Gen., 416), that Chinese laborers in transit to or 
from China and some other country could not lawfully be 
transported across the United States, and thought his opinion 
not obnoxious to the imputation of harshness or inhospitality 
toward a friendly power. About six months later, this same 
official retracted his first opinion and came (17 Op. A. G., 483) 
to a contrary decision. In the spring of 1886, Attorney-General 
Garland decided (Op. A. G., 388) that the first opinion was 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 73 

We come now to the great climax in the affairs of 
Eastern Asia which arrived with the close of the cen- 
tury. Into the underlying causes of the Boxer revolt I 
cannot here enter. The subject takes us altogether away 
from interests which are exclusively American into the 
whirlpool of international politics. Of the three basic 
factors involved in this uprising, Christianity, com- 
merce and politics, the last only was really important. 
After the revelation of China's military weakness in the 
war against Japan, Europeans in Asia found themselves 
yielding to the same temptation to which they had been 
exposed at the conclusion of the Arrow War. But now 
the scale of operations and interests was vastly increased. 
In 1897 began the series of seizures of Chinese territory 
by Europeans followed by that assignment of spheres of 
influence which divided up practically the whole area of 
China like a derelict body. It seemed for a year or two 
that the Christian world headed by Russia and Germany 
was ready to partition the helpless empire, and in the 
play of rival ambitions all remembrance was lost of the 
old idea of co-operation in dealing with China. Then 
occurred the dramatic uprising in which the Chinese 
people themselves, driven to desperation, surprised the 
Western world by their loyalty to a national idea, blindly 
and recklessly exhibited but significant in its intensity. 
The dispatch of a division of the American army to 
China has been called by a high authority " " One of the 
correct. In the summer of 1889, Attorney-General Miller de- 
cided (19 Op. A. G., 369) that the second opinion was correct. 
Here we have four conflicting opinions in the short space of 
seven years, each temporarily controUing the attitude of the 
United States Government as to the right of an humble Chinese 
person to cross our territory while in transit from his native 
land. . . . Not until 1894 was the matter put at rest by 
Attorney-General Olney (20 Op. A. G., 693)." 

13 General J. W. Foster, American Diplomacy in the Orient, p. 
421. 



74 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

most extreme acts of executive authority in the history 
of the United States." But it was not a case of war 
against China.^* The forces were sent to Peking to pro- 
tect American citizens and their interests when the au- 
thority of the Chinese Government had been superseded 
by a mob. No Chinese in authority, so far as I am aware, 
have yet blamed the United States for this technical vio- 
lation of international comity. Their attitude was for 
the most part actually favorable to the presence of those 
foreign troops who remained at Peking long enough 
after the siege of the legations to prevent anarchy and 
the destruction of all private property. The Americans 
by their refusal to enter upon any of the punitive expe- 
ditions, by the sober conduct of their soldiers and by the 
removal of the troops at the earliest practical moment, 
proved to the Chinese that their expedition was in the 
nature of an action by constabulary, not in any sense 
an armed invasion. 

It was Secretary Hay of the United States who first 
called the attention of the powers (July 3, 1900,) to the 
purpose of the United States to rescue Americans and 
then " Seek a solution which might bring about per- 
manent safety and peace to China, preserve its territorial 
and administrative entity, protect all rights guaranteed 
by treaty and international law and safeguard to the 
world the principle of equal and impartial trade with all 
parts of the Chinese Empire." 

This policy, as wise as it was magnanimous, substan- 
tiated the promise of Admiral Kempff's refusal to con- 
cur in the action of his colleagues of the Allied fleets in 
attacking the Taku Forts on June 17, considering their 
ultimatum unjustifiable in public law and suicidal in 
policy.^^ With the Boxer crisis it became for the first 

14 « Our declared aims involved no war against the Chinese 
nation," Pres. McKinley's Annual Message, December, 1900. 
^s He was right Their unwise attack seems to have been 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 75 

time evident to all that the politics of Asia are inextri- 
cably bound up in those of Europe and the Western hemi- 
sphere. Mr. Hay's programme was criticized by some 
of his countrymen as too ambitious and too political to 
conform to our national traditions. He was accused of 
committing us to a policy " impossible of attainment by 
our own independent action, and if pursued in common 
with other powers fraught with the gravest possibilities 
of those international entanglements with European na- 
tions, which it is our historic policy to keep out of." " 
His action was, however, only the logical development 
of an interchange of diplomatic notes during the previous 
September whereby he secured the formal agreement of 
the great powers to the open-door policy in their trade 
with China. So far from involving the United States 
in international entanglements it proposed the only safe 
course by which a world conflict over distracted China 
was avoided. For herself, indeed, America had every- 
thing to gain and nothing to lose by an undivided China, 
but China was rescued none the less at this juncture by 
a statesman whose genius and imagination impelled a 
return to the Burlingame policy regarding the empire. 
Before the greater menace, when foreign domination, 
aggression and spoliation threatened her political exist- 
ence, the lesser grievance arising from the molestation 
of her subjects in the United States faded away from 
China's estimate of America," 

An admirable summary of American achievement in 

the final outrage that impelled the Court to consent to the be- 
leaguering of the legations. 

18 " China and Russia," by Josiah Quincy, in North American 
Review, Vol. 171, Oct., 1900. 

1^ There is plenty of literature upon the Boxer uprising, but 
none of it is of lasting value to the historical student in form- 
ing conclusions as to its causes. Dr. A. H. Smith's " China 
in Convulsion," 2 vols., N. Y., 1901, remains the best general 
account and discussion. . ... 



76 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the International Conference in Peking in 1900-1901 ap- 
pears in Mr. Rockhiirs report to his government. 

" Throughout the negotiations [he says] our object 
was to use the influence of our Government in the inter- 
est of justice and moderation. 

" The twelve demands made by the powers on China may 
be classified under four principal heads : ( i ) Adequate 
punishment for the authors of and those guilty of actual 
participation in the anti-foreign massacres and riots; (2) 
The adoption of measures necessary to prevent their re- 
currence; (3) The indemnification for losses sustained 
by states and foreigners through these riots, and (4) 
The improvement of our relations, both official and com- 
mercial, with the Chinese Government and with China 
generally. 

" As regards the punishment of the responsible authors 
and actual perpetrators of the anti-foreign outrages, the 
Government of the United States, while insisting that all 
such should be held to the utmost accountability, declined 
to determine in every case the nature of the punishment 
to be inflicted, and maintained that the Chinese Govern- 
ment itself should in all cases carry them out. 

" As soon as the chief culprits had been punished 
. the United States threw the weight of its in- 
fluence on the side of moderation and the prevention of 
further bloodshed. To this it was mainly due that the 
long lists of proscription, which had been prepared by 
the representatives of the powers, of Chinese in the prov- 
inces charged with participation in the massacres or riots, 
were repeatedly revised before presentation to the Chi- 
nese Government. 

" While seeking with the other powers the best means 
to prevent the recurrence of such troubles and to guard 
the future American residents in Peking from such dan- 
gers as they had passed through, the United States did 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 'j'j 

not lend its support to any plan which contemplated either 
the prolonged occupation by foreign troops of any por- 
tions or points in China or the erection of an interna- 
tional fort in the city of Peking from which to carry on 
friendly relations with the Chinese Government. Our 
policy has always been in favor of a strong, independent 
and responsible Chinese Government, which can and will 
be held accountable for the maintenance of order and the 
protection of our citizens and their rights under the 
treaties. Throughout the negotiations we strictly adhered 
to this just principle, with results which have proved 
beneficial to all. 

" As regards the third point of the negotiations, the 
equitable indemnification of the various states for the 
losses and expenses incurred by them in China. 
and also the securing of indemnities to societies, com- 
panies and individuals for their private losses through 
the anti- foreign riots, the Government of the United 
States advocated that the sum total of these indemnities 
should not exceed a reasonable amount, well within the 
power of China to pay. After careful inquiry you 
reached the conclusion that with her present resources 
and liabilities, China could not pay as indemnities to the 
powers more than two hundred millions of dollars. The 
representative of the United States was instructed ac- 
cordingly, and he was further told that in the opinion of 
our Government the amount should be asked of China 
by the powers jointly, without detail or explanation, and 
afterwards divided among them, according to their losses 
and disbursements. 

" Though it became necessary, after protracted dis- 
cussion in the conference, to accept the proposition of 
the other powers to demand of China the sum total of 
their losses and disbursements, reaching the enormous 
sum of $333,000,000, our insistence in pressing for a 



78 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

much lower sum, and the weight of the arguments ad- 
duced in favor of such a poHcy, resulted in closing the 
indemnities to be paid in bonds issued at par and bearing 
a low rate of interest (four per cent, was finally agreed 
upon) and running for forty years, resulted in saving a 
vast sum to China, hastened the evacuation of the coun- 
try by expeditionary forces and the restoration of order 
and of normal relations with the Chinese Government. 

" In connection with the question of the indemnity, 
I should particularly mention that it having been proved 
necessary to the powers in their search for revenues ap- 
plicable to the service of the indemnity debt that the 
existing nominal five per cent, ad valorem customs tariff 
on foreign imports should be made an effective five per 
cent, ad valorem, the United States, mindful of the 
furtherance of lawful commerce in China in the interests 
of the world, declined to consent to the above increase 
of the customs tariff on imports unless (i) all the 
Treaty Powers and China agreed to co-operate in the 
long-desired improvement of the water approaches to 
Shanghai and Tientsin, and (2) that specific duties 
should be substituted to the present ad valorem ones in 
the tariff on foreign imports. Both these conditions 
were ultimately agreed upon. 

" Such, in brief, has been the part played by the United 
States in the conference of Peking. While we main- 
tained complete independence, we were able to act har- 
moniously in the conference of powers, the existence of 
which was so essential to a prompt and peaceful settle- 
ment of the situation, we retained the friendship of all 
the negotiating powers, exerted a salutary influence in 
the cause of moderation, humanity and justice, secured 
adequate reparation for wrongs done our citizens, guar- 
anties for their future protection, and labored success- 
fully in the interests of the whole world in the cause of 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 79 

equal and impartial trade with all parts o£ the Chinese 
Empire." ^® 

It is evident that in spite of just causes of resentment 
against the people of the United States, the Chinese real- 
ize and appreciate the value of a friendship which has 
been honorably proffered and renewed. On the whole, 
as we have seen, though we have sometimes blundered, 
our attitude toward China has been more friendly in act 
than that of any other nation. The last and perhaps most 
amazing instance of official stupidity on the part of the 
United States, was the flagrant discourtesy shown to 
official representatives of China at the time of the St. 
Louis Exposition. The result of this has shown at once 
the increasing sensitiveness and more general knowledge 
among the Chinese people of affairs outside of their own 
country. In spite of denials, it is perfectly evident now 
that the boycott against American goods in China during 
the year 1905 was the direct result of this unwarrant- 
able insult. The merchant gilds chiefly in Shanghai and 
Canton instituted a movement to refuse the use or pur- 
chase of any American goods, ordered the withdrawal 
of children from schools established by Americans and 
removed the Chinese servants from American families. 
The movement, which at first was very generally sup- 
ported, soon met several antagonistic influences under 
which the merchants gradually withdrew their support, 
while a good many students began to extend it so as to 
cover a general anti-foreign agitation. In this way, it 
became possible to enlist the co-operation of European 
representatives against it, while on their part the more 
moderate Chinese feared that the movement might be- 
come the excuse for a general revolutionary uprising. 
But on the whole this action of loyal and democratic 

18 Report of W. W. Rockhill, late Commissioner to China. 
Senate Doc. No. 67, 57th Congr., ist Sess., 1901. 



8o CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

China may be conceded to have carried its point. I note 
only two among several evidences of this conclusion. 
President Roosevelt responded promptly to this kind of 
pressure in agreeing to certain modifications in the ad- 
ministration of the law. The American Asiatic Asso- 
ciation, representing the most important mercantile in- 
terests concerned in the Far East, offered to the Presi- 
dent the following illuminating statement of their view 
of our relations with China : " It must be held to be 
unfortunate that these laws are at variance with the 
treaty stipulations . . . which are in force be- 
tween the two countries. We are not here to question 
the competency of Congress to modify the provisions of 
any treaty with a foreign power, but we do question the 
expediency of the Government of the United States oc- 
cupying an attitude in opposition to the principle which 
it has long maintained, that a nation cannot plead do- 
mestic legislation as a bar to the observance of its inter- 
national obligations. In the judgment of this delegation 
and the association which it represents, the treatment 
accorded by the officers of this Government to the exempt 
classes of Chinese visiting our country is more oppress- 
ive than either the letter or the spirit of the law re- 
quires." The boycott, then, was a counterstroke on the 
part of China against America, the value of which was 
clearly appreciated by the practical Yankee. It came 
very properly at a time when his hopes had been raised 
as to the increase of a commerce which has not yet nearly 
reached the figure of his expectations. It has, to use a use- 
ful every-day expression, " taught him some sense," and 
undoubtedly inspired in his breast a new and higher ap- 
preciation of Chinese character. But while it has served 
the purpose in this country of " awakening both public ^^ 

19 Editorial in Journal of the American Asiatic Association, 
July, 1905, p. 162. See also T. W. Chang's article in the Review 
of Reviews, Vol. 2s, p. 424. 



THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 8i 

and official sentiment to the magnitude of our interests 
in the Chinese Empire and to the folly of trifling with 
them," it .has developed a feeling of union in the hearts 
of the Chinese people and shown the Imperial Govern- 
ment that where the honor of the country was concerned 
it might depend upon the support of the nation. Most 
happily America has since this incident justified her repu- 
tation and given fresh indication of her intention for the 
future by returning the yet unpaid portion of about six- 
teen millions of indemnity money due her. It is adequate 
proof that she proposes to abide by her own high tra- 
ditions of generosity toward China, a policy which, we 
must believe, is to be continued under a President who, 
to noble principles, adds a broad and intimate knowledge 
of Far Eastern problems. 

" I am not one of those," Mr. Taft declares in his now 
famous speech of October, 1907, in Shanghai, " who view 
with alarm the effect of the growth of China with her 
teeming millions into a great industrial empire. I be- 
lieve that this instead of injuring foreign trade with 
China would greatly increase it, and while it might change 
its character in some respects, it would not diminish its 
profit. A trade which depends for its profit on the back- 
wardness of a people in developing their own resources 
and upon their inability to value at the proper relative 
prices that which they have to sell and that which they 
have to buy is not one which can be counted upon as 
stable or permanent." 

This is palpably a call to return to the economic po- 
sition of the United States in relation to the Chinese trade 
a century ago, when American ships created a thriving 
traffic there despite the monopolies long maintained by 
Europeans, winning such successes as came to them 
without fear or favor. The merchant of to-morrow can 
conduct his operations with no apprehensions as to the 
safety of his person or diminution of his profits through 



82 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

a system of enforced bribery; the scale of transactions 
will in future be enormously enlarged; a great empire 
will be encouraged and assisted to develop her own abun- 
dant resources ; but the " open door " of the twentieth 
century is in all essential respects the same objective 
that was desired by our countrymen who first sailed 
around the Cape to compete in a world market without 
expectation of support from naval forces behind them. 
In the hundred years since that intercourse began we 
have refused to yield to the temptation presented by mili- 
tary weakness unexpectedly exposed. We have steadily 
refrained from coercing a helpless people ourselves, 
though we have not denied to others their right to de- 
fend their commercial and political interests by stern 
measures, nor have we shown any quixotic reluctance to 
reap from these measures the benefits that accrued to all. 
We have accepted no cessions of territory, even at the 
treaty ports. We have never menaced the territorial in- 
tegrity of China and have been among the foremost in 
upholding her sovereign right to her own soil. How- 
ever fatuous and unfair our treatment of Chinese in 
America, it cannot be denied that we have endeavored to 
treat the Chinese Empire as honorably as other coun- 
tries and have consistently desired to include men of 
every race and color in the great family of nations so 
soon as they could prove their birthright by the plain 
tests of morality and culture. And, finally, we have de- 
clined at all times to force upon an unwilling people our 
scientific and economic methods of industry or transporta- 
tion, or to take possession of their affairs in the proud 
and selfish conviction that we could manage them better 
than they could themselves. In policy, if not always in 
performance, America in her relations with China has 
tried fairly to maintain the high ideals of a Christian 
nation. 



IV 

. THE NEED OF A DISTINCTIVE AMERICAN 
POLICY IN CHINA 

The development of China's political and commercial 
relations with other nations to their present status has 
been a gradual evolution, involving a constant modifica- 
tion of conditions and consequent alteration of the 
broader motives which have influenced its course. The 
question has two major viewpoints — the point of view of 
China, and that of nations which are concerned with her 
fate ; but both are focused upon the same issues, include 
the same propositions, and must conform to the onward 
march of civilization. 

The early relations of Western nations with China are 
remarkable for uniformity of theses. They had the gen- 
eral purposes of extending to this Empire the Christian 
religion, of opening it to foreign trade, and of bringing it 
within the modern comity of nations. It was felt that these 
were objects wherein all Christian nations are in accord, 
and whose accomplishment would benefit China as well 
as the world. That their prosecution was from time to 
time accompanied by international jealousies and bick- 
erings merely intimates the frailty of human nature. 
They were not due to any radical divergence of national 
policy. In the course of time this condition changed. 
Western statesmanship began to perceive the strength of 
the new forces which Oriental participation was inject- 
ing into world politics. Western relations with China be- 
came less abstract. The evolution and rise of Japan con- 
tributed a striking object lesson. Suddenly, in a time 

83 



84 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

measuring" hardly more than a decade, the issue of the 
fate of China has developed from an academic to a prac- 
tical question in the field of international affairs, until 
to-day there is none of the so-called major powers which 
does not accord it a place of primary importance. It is 
not exaggerating to say that issues focused upon the fate 
of China constitute the greatest international problem 
with which the world now has to deal. 

The reaction of this condition upon the relations of 
foreign powers to China has brought into play new forces, 
created new ambitions and designs, fomented interna- 
tional rivalries hitherto unforeseen and unsuspected, and 
by consequence we find fresh and some times semi-hostile 
theses formulating 'neath the old common one. So to- 
day, instead of one common thesis in the attitude of for- 
eign nations toward China, there are several being ac- 
tively promoted. As frequently happens in international 
affairs, the counter currents of these different theses are 
partly cloaked by a general policy to which all important 
nations interested in the Far Eastern Question out- 
wardly subscribe. This is embodied in what are termed 
the " open door " and " integrity of China " doctrines, 
and which by reiteration have become too familiar to re- 
quire explanation here. Of these two doctrines, the more 
essential is that designed to secure and preserve the ter- 
ritorial integrity and political autonomy of China; for 
it is apparent that if China becomes self-reliant in an in- 
ternational sense, the " open door " policy in her trade 
relations with other nations will follow logically. 

It is in certain interpretations now given the " integ- 
rity of China " doctrine that one fundamental divergence 
of the theses of foreign powers can be discerned. Some 
construe this doctrine merely to mean preservation of the 
status quo; that is, China's territorial domain should re- 
main nominally under her sovereignty, but that her ad- 



NEED OF AN AMERICAN POLICY 85 

ministrative processes continue to be subjected to exter- 
nal suggestion and advice amounting, when stripped of 
its veil of political fiction, to actual coercion. This thesis 
bases its ethical justification upon the theory that China 
is now incapable of conducting her affairs and instituting 
governmental reforms without assistance; therefore, it is 
paternal in conception. If the bona fides of this thesis is 
conceded, it is evident that the proof of this will be dem- 
onstrated by the paradox of it being rendered futile by 
its success ; for an infant will grow to years of discre- 
tion (unless arbitrarily restrained in swaddling clothes) 
when tutelage will not be needed nor tolerated. Obviously 
it is preposterous to assume that the oldest government 
in the world is internally incapable of sustaining itself. 
So a paternal attitude toward China must be confined to 
her effort to reform her government, and by applying 
this thesis to certain fundamental elements of the reform 
movement in China we can secure a test of its bona fides 
in this instance. 

The reform movement in China is in a nascent stage; 
but the popular sentiments and impulses which give it 
initial vitality take root in propositions palpably definite 
and practical. Their sentimental slogan is " China for 
the Chinese." This idea runs through all phases of the 
reform movement, and provides the basic doctrine for all 
political groups, although variously expressed. Put more 
specifically, it is expressed in the so-called " right of 
recovery " policy. This policy has numerous forms, but 
all of them turn upon the following propositions; 

1. The abolition of extra territoriality. 

2. Restoration of the fiscal autonomy of the Empire. 

3. Abolition of residential districts, or " concessions," 
within the Empire which are under the adminis- 
tration of foreigners and outside the full jurisdic- 
tion of China. 



86 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

4. Recovery by Chinese of ownership and manage- 
ment of concessions to foreign governments, and 
corporations which serve to mask governments, 
such as railways and leased territory. 

In respect to these propositions, we are now concerned 
less with the reasons for their establishment and exist- 
ence than with their relation to the possible rehabilitation 
of China. There is no doubt that they are inconsistent 
with real national autonomy and with wholesome na- 
tional pride, and cannot be regarded by Chinese 
except as anomalous and only temporarily toler- 
able. No really autonomous nation will submit to 
these conditions; therefore, genuine reform in China, 
having as an object and result a reconstruction of 
the Empire and its establishment on equal plane with 
other nations, logically means their ultimate abolition, 
and nations which are sincere in wishing China to re- 
form logically must desire the abolition of extra terri- 
toriality and quasi-sovereign foreign concessions. It ap- 
pears, then, that the real attitude of foreign nations 
toward China may be deduced from their attitude toward 
these phases of the reform movement, which should 
demonstrate whether they are at heart disposed to aid or 
obstruct reform. It is clear that an interpretation of the 
" integrity of China " doctrine which balks at accepting 
its logical outcome is at best a makeshift, and is really 
opposed to the true spirit of the doctrine. 

Among foreign policies which have been applied in 
China with enough power to make them felt in shaping 
the broader course of events, that of the United States 
of America alone has taken a course which now enables 
it sincerely to support the " integrity of China " doctrine 
without being suspected of inconsistency. It is true that our 
first treaties with Oriental nations, notably China and 



NEED OF AN AMERICAN POLICY 87 

Japan, were made the model from which extra territori- 
ahty was built, and provided the foundation upon which 
the present relations of those nations with the world 
were laid. But in framing those treaties our Government, 
while recognizing the need to meet a practical condition 
then existing, conceded the principle that it was to be 
regarded as temporary. For many years after Japan first 
proposed to abolish extra territoriality in her territories, 
the United States was the only great nation which as- 
sented to her wish, and supported her petition. This 
demonstrated that the American conception of the pater- 
nal relation of Western to Oriental nations is not incom- 
patible with the development by them of a genuine au- 
tonomy, as in the case of Japan ; which demonstrates the 
bona adcs of our nation in this matter. 

Our policy in China has been equally consistent. It is 
only within the last decade, since Japan's easy victory 
over her revealed the military weakness of China, and 
which was followed by a series of aggressions upon her 
territory by foreign powers, that her situation has be- 
come acutely important to America. From the time 
when John Hay became Secretary of State our nation has 
played an important though unobtrusive part in China's 
affairs. The Washington Government had early adopted 
the view that preservation of China's territorial integ- 
rity and political autonomy harmonizes with broader in- 
terests of the United States, and it consistently exerted 
its influence in supporting its thesis. Several times in 
the last decade America has initiated international ac- 
tion in China's favor ; indeed, it reasonably may be 
claimed that every important proposal concerning the in- 
ternational status of China that was at once practical and 
sincere, which during this period the powers have been 
induced to accede to, was promoted by the United States. 
The more important of these moves are : 



88 CHINA A^D THE FAR EAST 

1. The Hay Agreement, acceded to by the powers in 
1899, by which the principle of China's political 
integrity and the " open door " was formulated 
into an international covenant. 

2. The refusal of the United States to assent to the 
imposition, in 1901, of an oppressive indemnity 
upon China, which would have made her the fiscal 
vassal of foreign nations for an indefinite period. 

3. Action of the United States, in 1904, in inducing 
the belligerent powers, Russia and Japan, to con- 
fine hostilities to a defined region, in order to limit 
the devastating results of war upon the Chinese 
inhabitants, and to prevent the further embroil- 
ment of China. 

4. The action of President Roosevelt in using his in- 
fluence to terminate the war between Japan and 
Russia, and to secure definite assent of those na- 
tions, in their treaty of peace, to the restoration of 
Manchuria to China and to the doctrines of the 
" open door " and " territorial integrity." 

It is chiefly due to the attitude of the United States 
that no nation in any treaty or agreement it has since 
made regarding Eastern affairs has, whatever its designs 
may be, felt able to omit a reaffirmation of the Hay Doc- 
trine, and so it has come about that all important nations 
which are interested in the Eastern Question are on rec- 
ord in one or several conventions as favoring the main- 
tenance of China's integrity and the " open door." It 
may be argued that if all interested nations are agreed 
in the premises of the Eastern Question, and have ex- 
pressed their policies in formal notes and specific conven- 
tions with each other and China, a satisfactory course is 
assured. Unfortunately, however, the practical applica- 
tion of certain policies in Asia is now, as ever, running 



NEED OF AN AMERICAN POLICY 89 

directly contrary to fundamental principles of the Hay 
Agreement. Instead of being relieved of apprehension 
of external aggression, and feeling free peacefully to re- 
form her internal administration in compliance with 
modern requirements, China is still confronted with a 
situation which threatens her national existence ; and the 
" open door " is being evaded and undermined. Unless 
this tendency is again checked the forces of disintegra- 
tion may get the upper hand, and it may be impossible to 
prevent disruption of the Empire. This condition, which 
is recognized by most students of the course of events 
in the East, is causing the chancelleries of the world to~ 
re-study the question and to re-examine their policies in 
order to test their theses in the light of developments. 
It is conceded that years are required for China to be- 
come able herself to repulse foreign aggressions ; hence 
it follows that in this interim her equilibrium only can 
be sustained, if it is threatened by any powerful nation 
or nations, by inducing the counter-balancing pressure 
of other nations to preserve her. In such a situation, 
each passing year more clearly demonstrates a hypoth- 
esis that only the direct intervention of the United States 
of America can accomplish this. 

That there are fundamental differences between a dis- 
tinctive American policy in China and the conventional 
attitude of other nations becomes more obvious as time 
passes. This divergence involves much the same propo- 
sitions and incompatibility as the American policy in the 
Philippines and the British policy in India, and com- 
prises both ethical and political considerations. All the 
greater powers profess to desire the rejuvenation of 
China into a nation capable of sustaining its own po- 
sition ; but some of them are either actually hostile to 
reform there, or fear some of its tendencies and inevi- 
table results. The so-called " interests " of most foreign 



90 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

nations in China have been established and now to some 
extent rest upon conditions which real autonomy will 
eliminate. The courses in recent years of several powers 
conclusively intimate that the kind of reform they favor 
for China is just enough progress to provide opportunity 
for foreign enterprises, while keeping China subordinated 
to pressure in their favor by foreign diplomacy. To 
some extent the situation of foreigners and foreign in- 
terests in China now rests upon the power and disposi- 
tion of foreign nations to apply pressure upon China 
amounting, if need be, to coercion ; and which frequently 
is expressed by a condescending and overbearing atti- 
tude in diplomatic relations. Many foreign interests in 
China are beneficiaries from the extraordinary conditions 
which now obtain, and are opposed to change ; and these 
are tacitly arrayed against genuine reform, although per- 
haps vociferous in complaining about inconveniences 
caused by archaic administrative methods. 

The thesis of the American policy in China runs con- 
trary to the opinions of many foreign residents there, 
and to the prosecuted policies of most governments, as 
distinguished from their diplomatic pronouncements; 
and consequently it encounters strong opposition from 
quarters whence it might be presumed to receive moral 
and practical support. Speaking at Shanghai in Octo- 
ber, 1907, Mr. William H. Taft elucidated the thesis of 
the American policy as follows: 

" The United States and others who sincerely favor the 
open door policy will, if they are wise, not only welcome, 
but will encourage this great Chinese Empire to take 
long steps in administrative and governmental reform, in 
the development of her natural resources and the im- 
provement and welfare of her people. In this way she 
will add strength to her position as a self-respecting na- 



NEED OF AN AMERICAN POLICY 91 

tion ; may resist all foreign aggression seeking undue, 
exclusive or proprietary privileges in her territory, and 
without foreign aid enforce an open door policy of equal 
opportunity to all." 

This aptly illustrates the difference between the 
American and what may be called the European (includ- 
ing Japan) theses. Both are paternal in the sense that 
they recognize that China needs help in getting on her 
feet; but the European thesis evades the logic of its 
major premise. America wants to help China become 
ACTUALLY self-reliant ; some other nations seem to be de- 
termined that she shall not, but will remain in their 
leading strings indefinitely until, perchance, her alleged 
backw^ardness can be made an excuse for assuming that 
her case is hopeless, and that she must remain a perma- 
nent international ward, or be segregated into portions, as 
parts of her territory now are, under foreign quasi-sov- 
ereignty. It is argued that real autonomy for China will 
operate to the disadvantage of foreign interests, thereby 
impairing the security of their position ; and it may be 
conceded that this will be true in a measure, for there is 
no reform without its vicarious sacrifice ; but there would 
be ample compensation in the stimulus such a change 
would give the development of China's industry and 
trade, in which all' nations will share. 

In aiding China to acquire modern administrative ef- 
ficiency disinterestedness, patience and firmness should be 
employed. Real disinterestedness might mean indifference ; 
but sufficient interest in China's stability and prosperity 
to induce activity in propelling her in the right direction, 
without being wholly selfish, is the measure needed. It 
may be expected that China will in years to come often 
try the patience even of disinterested friends almost to the 
limit of endurance, by procrastinating methods which 



92 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

have heretofore been inseparable from her administrative 
processes ; but the attempt to help her should not be 
abandoned on this account. There is a genuine com- 
munity of interests w^ith China and the United States. 
Political and social forces now operating in the East are 
steadily inclining China toward closer contact with 
America, and in my opinion it requires only circumspect 
diplomatic activity for our nation to become the most in- 
fluential foreign power with the empire. It is difficult to 
conceive how the American people can be indifferent to 
the situation of this nation of 430,000,000 souls, or un- 
affected by its fate. Invention is every day bringing us 
closer to Asia, and we cannot escape contact with Ori- 
entals or avoid feeling the effects of their evolution] 
whether we wish or not. Who can reflect on recent de- 
velopments of air and water navigation and fail to realize 
that probably another twenty years will place China as 
much at our doors as was Cuba in 1898? The interest 
of the United States in the balance of power in the Pa- 
cific Ocean is fundamental, and the policy of our Govern- 
ment should be shaped in recognition of the fact that 
China is the true axis of political stability in the Far 
East. 

It therefore will be necessary for the United States to 
decide whether in the crisis which is approaching it will 
actively move to compel a satisfactory solution, or will 
permit American interests to continue to drift on the cur- 
rent of events ; whether it will formulate its own policy 
or have one thrust upon it ; whether it will lead or follow. 
That the United States must have an Asiatic policy can- 
not be doubted. American statesmen and people may 
shrink from participation in the Eastern Question, but it 
inevitably will intrude upon them ; and it is bound up in 
the fate of China. This great Empire will be the storm 
center of the forthcoming diplomatic struggle and the 



NEED OF AN AMERICAN POLICY 93 

scene of any international conflicts which failure of peace- 
ful adjustment will provoke. As the Monroe Doctrine 
invokes the United States to interfere should stronger 
nations aggress upon Central and South American states, 
so may a strong Pacific Ocean policy invoke its aid to 
preserve China, 

That the proposition contains this possibility may be 
granted; and admitting this, we should not hesitate to 
admit the logic of the conclusion. And this compels us 
to face the obvious fact that a distinctive American policy 
concerning China never will attain full vitality until our 
nation is prepared to accept the responsibility for certain 
possible results; in other words, our Eastern policy will 
not be respected until the world is convinced that fail- 
ure to consider and meet our reasonable wishes carries 
a probability of war. I deprecate war; but I wish to 
confine my discussion to practical conditions, and we can- 
not ignore the fact that a nation which will not, upon due 
provocation, fight to protect its interests will quickly feel 
the force of foreign aggression. What better illustration 
of this than that afforded by the Empire whose precarious 
situation is the subject of this conference? 

The time is ripe for an American statesman to extend 
and make more comprehensive the principles enunciated 
by Mr. Taft at Shanghai. The thesis of a distinctive 
American policy toward China was admirably stated by 
the experienced administrator who now is President of 
the United States; but to be effective in accomplishing 
its objects it must be expanded into something more 
definite and conclusive. On a day not far distant, I hope 
that an American statesman will define our attitude 
toward China in words something like these : 

" The United States of America considers the terri- 
torial integrity of China and her political autonomy 



94 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

within the entire limits of the Empire as now constituted 
to be important to its (the United States) interests and 
to the preservation of the existing status quo in the Pacific 
Ocean, and would regard any encroachment or aggres- 
sion upon either, by any nation whatsoever, as inimical 
to the interests of this nation." 

Such an utterance probably would startle the diplo- 
matic world, and perhaps cause a temporary international 
flurry ; but as soon as the momentary excitement sub- 
sided, and its real import was appreciated, it hardly could 
fail to clarify the Eastern situation, and be a makeweight 
for peace in that locality ; just as the Monroe Doctrine 
undoubtedly has tended to safeguard South and Central 
American states from being embroiled in the scope of 
ambitions of European nations. 

I am convinced that the time has come for America's 
policy in China to break away from the leading strings 
of the European thesis in practice as well as in theory. I 
cannot see what our nation has to gain by lending sup- 
port, even passively, to a thesis which tends to secure our 
competing nations in their present advantages and proj- 
ects by arraying against American enterprise in China 
the inertia of obsolete conditions. The principles which 
always have imbued the dealings of our nation with Orien- 
tal states, and which were re-stated by Mr. Taft at Shang- 
hai, carry greater promise for all legitimate interests in 
China; and it may be hoped that this theorem will be 
given practical effect by the prosecution of a distinctive 
American policy there. 



THE HISTORY AND ECONOMICS OF THE 
FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA 

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the 
traders of the Western nations went to China for tea and 
silk. There was a moderate demand for cotton cloth — 
nankeens — which was superior in color and texture to 
the more expensive product of Western looms, and for 
those articles, such as porcelain, lacquered ware and ivory 
carvings, which were desired for their quaintness; but 
tea and silk were always, even down to the middle of the 
nineteenth century, the main staples of China's export 
trade. Comparing the trade of 1906 with that of 1837, 
it will be found that tea, which to-day furnishes 11 per 
cent, of the value of all exports, in 1837 furnished 61 per 
cent. ; silk, to-day 30 per cent., is unaltered in its relative 
proportion from the 33 per cent, of 1837; but, outside 
tea and silk and its products, the unlimited range of other 
productions of the Celestial Empire has grown from a 
modest 6 per cent, to nearly three-fifths — 59 per cent. — 
of the entire export trade. 

The American colonies had not reached the dignity 
of being clothed in home-spun silk ; and the colonial con- 
nection with the China trade was entirely through the 
honorable East India Company, coming to an abrupt end 
in Boston harbor, and elsewhere from New Hampshire 
to South Carolina, in December, 1773. Colonists, as in 
Australia to-day, are always great tea drinkers, but for 
ten long years the American people denied themselves. 
Then, on February 22, 1784, the year following the peace 

95 



96 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

which first made it possible for an American ship under 
the American flag to cross the ocean in safety, the good 
ship Empress of China left New York for Canton to bring 
back a cargo of tea, for the cup which cheers, but not 
inebriates. Various factors tended to cause a great de- 
velopment of this trade. First the capacity of the mer- 
chants of Salem, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, 
whose attention had not then been turned to the railway 
development of their own country. Then the skill and 
boldness of the American sailor; in 1788 the ship Alli- 
ance sailed to Canton with no charts, but only a map of 
the then known world on Mercator's projection, and 
never dropped anchor from the time she left Philadelphia. 
But above all other causes were the Napoleonic wars, 
which gave neutrals a golden opening, in China as along 
the coasts of Europe. During the first decade of the 
nineteenth century. Great Britain, mistress of the seas, 
took about three-fifths of China's exports, the Americans, 
the great neutrals, a third, and the other nations " also 
ran." American trade continued to flourish, until in 
1852 no less than 47 per cent, of the foreign tonnage 
entering the port of Shanghai was under the American 
flag. Then England struck away the crutches from her 
ship-owners by abolishing her navigation laws, and be- 
fore i860 had begun to recover her old-time supremacy. 
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the 
balance of trade was always " in favor " of China, a 
situation so dearly loved of economists of the old school. 
The foreign trader had to find the means of buying his 
tea and silk, of providing for heavy disbursements for 
his foreign establishment and his ships, and of meet- 
ing the taxes and other and much heavier charges laid 
by the officials on his ships and goods; to illustrate the 
last it is enough to say that the tonnage charges alone 
on an East India Company's ship were not less than 



THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA 97 

$8,000, and even on the smaller American ships, averag- 
ing about 400 tons, never fell below $4,000. To provide 
this export fund, the import of goods never sufficed ; 
during the eighteenth century it never amounted to one- 
fifth of the sum required; there were then no securities, 
by the transfer of which the international balance could 
be adjusted; and during the whole of that century 
Europe was drained of its silver, and poured into China 
a mass which, for the period to 1830, cannot be estimated 
at less than $500,000,000. Except a small quantity of 
English woollens (and on them the East India Com- 
pany declared the loss to have been £72,500 sterling a 
year), China wanted no foreign products, except two 
alone ; opium was one, and the other was cotton, of which 
China is the second greatest producer in the world. 
The drain continued down into the nineteenth century, 
until 1830. From 1818 was seen the even more waste- 
ful process of importing in American ships the silver 
which was at once shipped away in English ships ; from 
1818 to 1830 in round figures the known import of silver 
in American ships was $60,000,000, and the known ex- 
port in English ships was $40,000,000. This indicated 
the turning of the tide. 

Up to 1830 the American trade with China was con- 
ducted on the basis of a triangular operation. American 
products were shipped to Europe ; with the proceeds in 
Spanish dollars — the Chinese would take no other — the 
ship sailed, practically in ballast, either direct from 
Europe or from an American port to Canton, and there 
loaded tea for the United States. Up to 1815 a full 
four-fifths of the export fund for American ships was 
provided by Spanish dollars in this way; and in the 
fifteen years from 1816 to 1830 a full two-thirds; but 
in 1830 an abrupt change was made. The American 
trade at Canton was thereafter financed by bills of ex- 



98 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

change on London, for which the money was readily 
found at Canton through the expansion of the opium 
trade. 

Opium was produced in China long before it was im- 
ported, both the home and foreign product being used 
for medicinal purposes. Tobacco was introduced by the 
Spanish from America about 1620, and its use for smok- 
ing was prohibited by Imperial edict; but to-day it is 
smoked by every man and woman in China. Through 
the Dutch the practice of mixing opium with the tobacco 
was introduced from Java about 1650; and in 1729 its 
use too was prohibited by Imperial edict. At that time 
the import of foreign opium was less than 200 chests a 
year. The home production and the foreign import in- 
creased slowly through that century, and the evils of 
smoking increased in proportion ; until in 1800 an Im- 
perial edict prohibited both the importation and the pro- 
duction. Until 1800 opium was in the Chinese custom 
house a commodity like another, being classed in the 
tariff with fragrant gums, like olibanum, asafoetida, etc. 
The edict was absolutely disregarded by the officials 
whose duty it was to enforce it ; and the only visible 
changes were that opium was thenceforth smoked by it- 
self, and no longer mixed with tobacco, and that it no 
longer came to the city of Canton, but remained at 
Whampoa and Macao, both equally under Chinese fiscal 
and territorial control. Up to 182 1 the value of the 
cotton imported was never less than double that of the 
opium, and both together contributed less than a third 
of the import of goods, and much less than a fifth of the 
total export fund. In 1821 a reforming viceroy ordered 
the opium away from Whampoa and Macao, and showed 
that he meant his order to be obeyed; and from this 
time opium showed an importance in balancing China's 
foreign trade which it never had had before. In 1823 



THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA 99 

the value of opium for the first time overpassed that of 
cotton, in 1829 it was double, and in 1837 two and a 
half times as great. Up to 1800 the import had in 
only one year exceeded 2,000 chests, and, in the twenty- 
one years following, the average was under 4,300 chests. 
Then came the period of successively greater restrictions 
and greater corruption of the officials, the one providing 
the opportunity for the other, and the trade rapidly ex- 
panded, until in the year 1830 the import reached 16,257 
chests. This was the year in which the American trade 
finally abandoned the practice of importing dollars and 
substituted bills on London, which of course were bought 
at Canton with the proceeds of the sale of opium. 

The foreign opium came from three sources. Let us 
take as typical the year 1829 in which the total import 
was 13,868 chests. Of this quantity, 4,903 chests were 
Bengal opium proceeding from the East India Company's 
monopoly, from which ten years later it derived an 
annual revenue of upwards of i 1,500,000 sterling. Then 
7,709 chests were Malwa opium produced in the states of 
the independent princes of Rajputana; of these, 2,820 
chests were shipped through the English port of Bombay, 
contributing to the Company's revenue a transit duty of 
125 rupees a chest, making a total of £35,250 ; and 3,889 
chests passed through the Portuguese port of Daman, 
reaching it by way of the independent port of Karachi, 
this latter port becoming English only on the annexa- 
tion of Sind in 1843 ; the remaining 1,000 chests is the 
approximate estimate of the quantity introduced by the 
Portuguese through Macao, presumably from Daman. 
Then 1,256 chests were Turkey opium imported on 
American account in American ships from Smyrna or 
London. 

The trade had finally found its means of balancing it- 
self with opium, which the Chinese would take when 



100 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

they would not take other commodities. In 1837 it pro- 
vided 53 per cent., and cotton 22 per cent, of all im- 
ports, English manufactures and tropical spices supplying 
the remaining 25 per cent. ; the movement of treasure 
had turned the other way, and in that year the ship- 
ment from Canton of something over $3,000,000 was 
required to balance the trade, and in addition the agents 
of the East India Company bought bills to the amount 
of $4,186,663. For two centuries the problem had been 
to find the means of buying export cargoes without con- 
tinuing the drain of the precious metal (silver only; gold 
is a commodity in China) from the Western treasuries; 
since then for seventy years the problem has been to find 
Chinese produce with which to pay for the imports, and, 
in order that the problem may be studied, I propose to 
analyze somewhat the trade of the year 1906. The year 
1907, the latest for which the figures are now in my 
hands, has been a period of depressed trade and liquida- 
tion of stocks. 

In 1837 opium provided 53 per cent, of all imports, 
and in 1906 under 8 per cent. The quantity had in- 
creased absolutely from 28,307 to 47,732 chests (having 
in the interim risen as high as 76,811 chests), but the 
proportion to the whole trade was much less. The per- 
manent American connection with the trade ceased in 
1855, three years before it was legalized in 1858; and, 
except for one English house, the trade is now in the 
hands of Bombay Jews and Parsees. 

In 1837 cotton fabrics were exported from China, and 
the importation of machine-spun and machine-woven 
cottons had only just begun. In 1837 the value of the 
export was $500,000 ; in 1906 the value of the import of 
cotton manufacturers was 153,000,000 taels ($122,- 
500,000), which was 37 per cent, of the value of all im- 
ports. In 1906 there was, however, still an export of 



THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA loi 

Chinese hand-woven cloth to the value of 2,300,000 taels 
($1,850,000) called for by the colonies of Chinese settled 
in the Malay Archipelago. Of cotton products imported, 
yarn and twist constituted 42 per cent., the quantity being 
close on 340,000,000 pounds ; of this 72 per cent, came 
from the mills of British India, 26 per cent, from 
Japanese mills, and i| per cent, from English. Plain 
fabrics came next, with an import of 20,250,000 pieces, 
averaging about 40 yards; of these 53 per cent, came 
from English mills, 42 per cent, from American, and 3 
per cent, from Japanese. Fancy cottons, chiefly imita- 
tions of more expensive woollen fabrics, were valued at 
27,500,000 taels ($22,000,000), chiefly from England, but 
the cotton flannel from America. 

Woollen fabrics were valued at 4,400,000 taels ($3,- 
500,000), which was less than half the value of the im- 
port in 1837. The Chinese who can afford woollens 
prefer silk, and the wearers of wadded cotton garments 
cannot afford woollens. 

Of metals China imported a small quantity of English 
tin in 1837; in 1906 the tin imported came from Banka, 
off Sumatra, and was valued at 2,200,000 taels ($1,- 
800,000). The consumption of iron is said to be the 
best measure of a country's civilization and the best 
gauge of its prosperity ; with a small home production by 
primitive methods, the import of iron and steel in 1906 
was under 180,000 tons, and of this quantity 40 per 
cent, was in the form of old iron and cuttings. The 
total value of all metals was 4 per cent, of all imports. 

Outside these categories of opium, cottons, woollens, 
and metals, there is a long list of sundries which were, 
for the most part, unknown in 1837, but which in 1906 
were valued at 198,250,000 taels ($158,600,000) or 48 
per cent, of the total import trade. Raw cotton, which 
in 1837 provided 22 per cent, of all imports, in 1906 gave 



102 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

only one-third of one per cent. ; while, on the other hand, 
the quantity of Chinese cotton exported was seventeen 
times that of the foreign cotton imported. In 1837 the 
Chinese smoked only their own home-grown tobacco ; in 
1906 they imported tobacco, cigars and cigarettes of the 
value of nearly 8,000,000 taels ($6,500,000), of which 
cigarettes accounted for 5,850,000 taels ($4,700,000), 
coming, something over a half from the United States, 
a fourth from England, and a tenth from Japan. The 
import of coal, unknown in 1837, amounted in 1906 to 
1,558,000 tons, almost entirely from Japan. Ice, of 
which the first shipload arrived from Boston in July, 
1845, has disappeared from the import list. Aniline dyes 
were unknown before the days of Magenta and Solferino, 
but their import in 1906 was valued at 5,750,000 taels 
($4,600,000), including 3,180,000 taels ($2,550,000) for 
synthetic indigo, to displace the native and natural prod- 
uct. The import of flour from Oregon and California 
amounted in 1906 to 4,750,000 fifty-pound bags (237,- 
500,000 pounds). In 1837, Chinese and European alike 
used flint and tinder for striking a light; in 1906 the 
import of matches was 3,300,000,000 boxes, almost en- 
tirely from Japan, a number sufficient to give eight boxes 
to every man, woman and child in the Chinese Empire. 
Kerosene had not been discovered in 1837; in 1906 the 
import was 129,000,000 gallons, of which 49 per cent. 
came from the United States, 30 from Sumatra, and 21 
from Borneo ; in 1903, before the Russo-Japanese War, 
the percentage had been American 43, Sumatran 35, ^ 
Russian 21, and i per cent, from Burma and Borneo 
together. Sugar in 1837 was an article of export; in 
1906 the import was 875,000,000 pounds. In 1837 China 
had a monopoly of the supply of tea, but in 1906 a 
quantity of nearly 8,800,000 pounds of tea was imported 
into China from India, Ceylon, and Java, all of which 



THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA 103 

have derived the industry from China within half a 
century past, and have ahnost driven Chinese tea from 
many of the markets of the world. 

The total imports in 1837 were valued at $38,200,000. 
In 1906 this had increased to 410,000,000 taels ($328,- 
000,000). To this must be added treasure amounting to 
30,250,000 taels ($24,200,000), liability for payments on 
loans and indemnities, 38,500,000 taels ($30,800,000), 
and other invisible liabilities amounting, it has been esti- 
mated, to about 32,000,000 taels ($25,600,000), making 
a total sum of 510,750,000 taels ($408,600,000) to be pro- 
vided by China commercially to meet her international 
obligations. 

The total value of the exports from Canton in 1837 
was $36,074,860, to which tea contributed 61 per cent., 
silk and its products 33 per cent., and all other com- 
modities together 6 per cent. Tea was the great staple, 
and of it China had then a natural monopoly. Chinese 
statesmen then considered that, through it, they could 
coerce the world into acquiescence with their pretensions. 
In state documents of the period it was repeatedly de- 
clared that " our products, tea and rhubarb, are essential 
to the outer people ; by nature, owing to their gross feed- 
ing, they are habitually constipated, and, without the 
tea and rhubarb of the inner land, they must fall into 
black humors and die." Now the situation is changed. 
English enterprise carried the tea industry to India, and 
to-day 95 per cent, of the leaf consumed in the United 
Kingdom comes from India and Ceylon. The Aus- 
tralian and South African markets, too, have been cap- 
tured. In the United States the consumption of Chinese 
tea is now only 50 per cent, greater than in 1837, and 
about the same as forty years ago; the natural increase 
for a larger population comes from other countries. 
Russia is the only country remaining faithful to its love 



104 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

for the softer and more wholesome teas from China. 
The export by sea from Canton in 1837 was 59,000,000 
pounds; and, in addition, a quantity (in 1838) of 9,- 
000,000 pounds crossed the land frontier by caravan for 
Russia, making a total of 68,000,000 pounds, all leaf. 
The export of tea reached its maximum in 1886, when 
the total quantity exported was 295,630,000 pounds, made 
up of 247,430,000 pounds of leaf and 48,200,000 pounds 
of brick tea, a cheaper and coarser product, used in Cen- 
tral Asia for making a soup. In 1906 the export had 
fallen to a total of 187,200,000 pounds, made up of 109,- 
600,000 pounds of leaf and 77,600,000 pounds of brick 
tea; and its value was only 11 per cent, of the value of 
all exports. Of the total export Russia took 13 per cent, 
in 1837, and, measured by value 55 per cent., and by 
quantity 67 per cent, in 1906. 

Of raw silk the export in 1837 was 2,736,000 pounds 
valued at $8,155,000, of which 2,719,300 pounds went to 
England and 16,700 pounds to America ; there was in 
addition an export of woven silks valued at $3,550,000, 
of which 60 per cent, went to the United States. In 
1906 the export of raw silk was 14,731,500 pounds, 
valued at 55,700,000 taels ($44,560,000), of waste silk 
137,000,000 pounds, valued at 4,750,000 taels ($3,- 
800,000), and of woven silks 2,070,000 pounds, valued 
at 10,850,000 taels ($8,680,000) ; the total value was 71,- 
300,000 taels ($57,040,000), which was 30 per cent, of 
the value of all exports. Chinese silk has for over two 
thousand years been noted for its quality, and it is still, 
by nature, the best in the world; but there is reason to 
fear that the disease which has attacked the silk worms 
in all parts of the world, and which has been stamped 
out in France, Italy and Japan, has not been so success- 
fully combatted in China. 

Commodites other than teas and silks were exported 



THE FOREIGN TR.\DE OF CHINA 105 

in 1837 (including cotton cloth, $500,000) to a total 
value of $2,250,000; in 1906, their value was 139,500,000 
taels ($111,600,000), and this total was made up by a 
long list of commodities which have been dragged to the 
light of day by traders who are now as anxious to find 
the means of meeting China's commercial liabilities as 
their predecessors a century ago were to find the means 
of buying China's exports. In the list we have in 1906 
living animals, exported chiefly to supply Hongkong and 
the Philippines, to a value of nearly 4,000,000 taels ($3,- 
200,000), in addition to eggs and other provisions valued 
at 4,450,000 taels ($3,550,000). Beans, exported for the 
oil to be expressed from them, and beancake, the re- 
siduum of beans from which the oil had been expressed, 
were shipped, the first chiefly and the last entirely to 
Japan, to the amount of 322,000 tons, valued at 10,- 
200,000 taels ($8,160,000) ; the oil is used for cooking 
and illuminating purposes, and the beancake for manur- 
ing the fields. In addition there was an export of 33,000 
tons of expressed oils from beans, peanuts, etc., and of 
110,350 tons of oil seeds (cotton, rape and sesamum). 
Essential oils were exported to the extent of 945,000 
pounds, chiefly aniseed oil ; the only place in the world 
from which this comes is a small tract lying across the 
frontier between China and Tonking. The export of 
pigs bristles was 5,564,500 pounds, valued at 2,750,000 
taels ($2,200,000). In 1837 cotton was imported to the 
amount of 90,314,000 pounds, valued at $8,225,000; in 
1906 the import was only 6,047,000 pounds, but Chinese 
cotton was exported, almost entirely to Japan, to the 
amount of 102,605,000 pounds, valued at 11,630,000 taels 
($9,300,000). Firecrackers in 1837 already supplied 
Young America with the means of celebrating the 
glorious Fourth ; in 1906, the export weighed 10,000 tons 
and was valued at 3,600,000 taels ($2,880,000.) Ih 



io6 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

fibres (hemp, jute, and ramie) the resources of China 
are as yet only lightly tapped ; in 1906 the export was no 
more than 22,300 tons, valued at 3,000,000 taels ($2,- 
400,000). Matting was early taken to America to cover 
the floors, and in 1906 the export was 431,000 rolls, 
valued at 3,100,000 taels ($2,480,000). The shipment of 
metals and their ores was not dreamed of in 1837; a 
beginning has now been made, and the export in 1906 
was valued at 5,275,000 taels ($4,220,000). Chinese 
paper was exported to the amount of 16,400 tons, but, on 
the other hand, 26,800 tons of foreign paper were im- 
ported. Opium, of Chinese production, appears as an 
export to the amount of 4,730 chests (630,700 pounds), 
valued at 2,000,000 taels ($1,600,000). In 1837 furs 
were imported, in no great quantity, however, from 
America; in 1906 the export of furs was valued at 
575,000 taels ($460,000), of dressed skins (goat and kid, 
sheep and lamb) at 3,320,000 taels ($2,656,000), and of 
undressed hides (cattle) and skins (goats and sheep) at 
10,400,000 taels ($8,320,000). The export of straw- 
braid in 1906 was 14,700,000 pounds, valued at 6,300,000 
taels ($5,040,000). Wool, of sheep and camel, was 
shipped to the extent of 20,500 tons, valued at 5,500,000 
taels ($4,400,000) ; it came from the plains of Mongolia 
over a long caravan road to the port of Tientsin, and 
was shipped chiefly, the camel's wool to England, the 
sheep's wool to the United States. 

The total value of commodities exported during 1906 
was 236,500,000 taels ($189,200,000), to which must be 
added 31,550,000 taels ($25,240,000) for the export of 
treasure, making a visible outward movement of 268,- 
050,000 taels ($214,440,000), with which, apparently, to 
meet China's international liabilities, amounting to 510,- 
750,000 taels ($408,600,000). China's invisible assets 
have been made the subject of some study, and may be 



THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA 107 

briefly summarized as follows. Foreign nations spend 
in China for the maintenance of their navies, garrisons, 
legations, consulates, evangelical and educational mis- 
sions, merchant shipping and travelers, a sum which, it 
is estimated, cannot be put lower than 51,500,000 taels 
($41,200,000) ; at the time of the inquiry (1904) it was 
estimated that in the year there came from abroad, for 
the development of railways, mines, etc., funds to the 
amount of 27,000,000 taels ($21,600,000) ; there is un- 
recorded trade by the land frontiers in which the excess 
of exports over imports is not less than 20,000,000 taels 
($16,000,000) ; and finally there is the stream of remit- 
tance of the profits and savings of the millions of Chinese 
emigrants to America, Hawaii, Australia, Japan, the 
Philippines, Indo-China, Singapore and the Malay 
Peninsula, the Dutch Indies, Siam, British India, and 
(since 1895) Formosa, from whom come annually an 
amount which formerly I put at 75,000,000 taels, but 
which I am now more inclined to estimate at 100,000,000 
taels ($80,000,000). Accepting the last figure, we have 
a total for China's assets in international exchange of 
466,550,000 taels ($373,240,000) ; and, in judging any 
discrepancy in an attempt to balance the trade of 1906, 
it must be borne in mind that, of the three years, 1904- 
5-6, the first eighteen months were a period of war which 
seriously afifected the trade of China, and the next eigh- 
teen months were a period of expansion and over-trad- 
ing from which the trade has not even yet fully recov- 
ered. On the figures of 1903, the last year of normal 
trade, the balance would have been closer. 

Commercially China has always balanced her inter- 
national accounts year by year. A hundred years ago 
her exports were paid for mainly by importing silver, with 
some moderate quantities of English woollens and In- 
dian opium and cotton; seventy years ago each year's 



io8 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

exports were paid for, about a half by opium, and a half 
by cotton and other products. Then wants were discov- 
ered or created, and imports increased ; and now the 
problem is to discover by what means she may pay for 
those imports. Up to 1895 she had no securities to offer 
in exchange, but since that time she has been piling debt 
on debt, not generally for internal improvement, but to 
pay the bill for foolish wars ; still a certain amount, the 
railway loans of about $75,000,000, have been for re- 
productive purposes, and have served to redress the in- 
ternational balance. Outside these she is saddled with 
a dead weight of over $30,000,000 a year which must be 
paid in exports without any return. Even after the 
opium trade shall be entirely abolished, the one serious 
problem for Chinese statesmen is to devise means by 
which the export of commodities may be encouraged and 
developed, that so the international balance of exchange 
may be maintained without bankrupting the empire. 



VI 

.AMERICA'S TRADE RELATIONS WITH CHINA 

Our trade relations with China began early in the 
history of the Republic, when the fast American clippers 
of 500 or 600 tons sailed from Boston, New York or 
Baltimore, laden with American products for the Straits 
and a market. But the more recent commercial inter- 
course between the two nations has been conducted under 
the guarantee of a series of treaties beginning with that 
of 1844, which contains the following declaration: 
" Citizens of the United States resorting to China for the 
purposes of commerce shall in no case be subject to other 
or higher duties than are or shall be required of the 
people of any other nation whatever . . . and if 
additional advantages and privileges of whatever descrip- 
tion be conceded hereafter by China to any other nation, 
the United States and the citizens thereof shall be en- 
titled to a complete, equal and impartial participation in 
the same." Under the treaty of 1858, concluded at 
Tientsin, the most favored nation clause is still more 
emphatically stated, as follows : " The contracting 
parties hereby agree that should at any time Ta-Tsing 
Empire (the phrase used in the treaties to describe 
China) grant to any nation, or the merchants or citizens 
of any nation, any right, privilege or favor connected 
either with navigation, commerce, political or other inter- 
course which is not conferred by this treaty, such right, 
privilege and favor shall at once freely inure to the benefit 
of the United States, its public officers, merchants and 
citizens." It was in the later sixties that William H. 

109 



no CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Seward made his celebrated prophecy that " the Pacific 
Ocean, its shores, its islands and the vast regions beyond, 
will become the chief theater of events in the world's 
great hereafter." The ancient world grew around the 
Mediterranean and the great highway of its commerce 
was that inland sea. As the new civilization advanced 
it sent its ships to brave the perils of the Atlantic, and 
with the navigation of that ocean is associated the 
material progress and the mechanical triumphs of modern 
times. We are on the threshold of a new and probably 
greater era in which the influence of an awakened Asia 
is to make itself felt — in which that half of the population 
of the world which is grouped around the Far Eastern 
Pacific area will definitely take its place among the 
nations of the world. 

With the advance of the United States to the position 
of a Pacific power, the integrity of China began to be 
clearly perceived as an American interest. The Alaskan 
purchase was dictated by a desire to grasp the oppor- 
tunity to become the foremost among the powers of the 
Pacific ; the acquisition of Hawaii was a testimony to the 
necessity of excluding foreign control from a command- 
ing position in mid-Pacific ; the taking of the Philippines 
was justified on the ground that we needed an emporium 
of trade and a place of arms to be ready against the time 
when other powers might be moved to dispute the right 
of the United States to enjoy equality of commercial op- 
portunity in the great markets of Eastern Asia. We 
have made the construction of a canal across the Isthmus 
of Panama a national enterprise, primarily because it 
was needed to enable the manufacturing sections of our 
country to have the full benefit of the present and future 
profit of the commerce of the Pacific. Our government 
has shown that it regards this enterprise as one of su- 
preme importance to the national welfare by treating 



AMERICA'S TRADE WITH CHINA in 

obstacles interposed to its execution, with such uncom- 
promising resolution as to startle a large portion of our 
own people, even more than it startled the governments 
and people of the Central American republics. If the 
extension of the influence of the United States has been 
anywhere pursued in obedience to the call of " manifest 
destiny," it has been on and around the Pacific Ocean. 
If there be one point more than another where a check 
to our influence would dwarf the role which this Republic 
is fitted to play on the stage of history, it would be here. 
Were China, with all its possibilities and opportunities, 
part of the continent of Africa, we might have an equally 
strong commercial interest in its future ; but we should 
hardly be justified in offering to its partition a more 
vigorous resistance than we made to the passage of 
Madagascar under French sovereignty, and the conse- 
quent disappearance of a highly promising market. But, 
in the case of China, the commercial interest is reinforced 
by political considerations of acknowledged potency — by 
reasons of policy which are founded on an imperative 
regard for the free and full development of our national 
greatness. The place which the United States occupies 
in the world, and the place which it should occupy in 
future ages, are equally challenged by every step made 
toward the dismemberment of China. Let the fact be 
evaded or disregarded as we may, every blow aimed at 
the independence of that ancient empire is a blow at the 
prestige of this RepubHc — part of a deliberate attempt to 
make the position of the United States in " the world's 
great hereafter" that of a second-rate power. 

In short, the policy which dictated the construction of 
the Panama Canal is meaningless, if it be not accom- 
panied by a correlated policy in Eastern Asia. As Presi- 
dent Roosevelt remarked, the Canal when made is to 
last for the ages ; " it is to alter the geography of a Con- 



112 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

tinent and the trade routes of the world." The posses- 
sion of a territory fraught with such pecuhar capacities 
as the Isthmus^ carries with it obHgations to mankind ; 
and it is equally true that the existence of such an entity 
as the Chinese Empire imposes peculiar obligations on 
the rest of the world, and notably on its neighbor, the 
United States. It is long since the preservation of the 
integrity of China was recognized as a world necessity ; 
all that has happened in the last ten years, and all that 
is going on before our eyes, only accentuate the truth 
that the dismemberment of China would bring disaster 
to no nation more swiftly and surely than to this Re- 
public. President Roosevelt characterized the Panama 
Canal as " a project colossal in its size, and of well-nigh 
incalculable possibilities for the good of this country and 
the nations of mankind." But the construction of this 
great waterway was surely not entirely dictated by the 
necessity of furnishing the speediest and easiest means of 
communication between two great sections of our coun- 
try. If it does not also place the Atlantic and Gulf 
States in closer touch with the great Pacific area, al- 
ready half girdled by American territory, it will have 
failed of the larger part of its usefulness and be robbed 
of the greater part of its potentiality for profit. 

Twelve years ago when the process of the alienation 
of Chinese territory began to assume threatening pro- 
portions, it was argued with some force that the en- 
croachments made by Russia and Germany on Chinese 
sovereignty called for a protest from the United States, 
because every " lease " which the Chinese Government 
makes of a part of its territory to a foreign power, con- 
tracts the area within which our treaties with China can 
be operative- That is to say, when a foreign sover- 
eignty takes the place of the Chinese at any given point, 
the treaties become to that extent non-existent, and our 



AMERICA'S TRADE WITH CHINA 113 

right to trade there on equal terms with all other nations 
is wholly dependent upon the will of the foreign govern- 
ment. It was considerations like these which underlay 
the efforts made by Secretary Hay to preserve the " open 
door " in China. In a circular note to the powers co- 
operating in China for the suppression of the Boxer ris- 
ing, dated July 3, 1900, the policy of the United States 
toward China was thus briefly stated : " To afiford all 
possible protection everywhere to foreign life and prop- 
erty ; to guard and protect all legitimate foreign inter- 
ests ; to aid in preventing the spread of the disorders to 
other provinces of the Empire and a recurrence of such 
disorders ; and to seek a solution which may bring about 
permanent safety and peace to China, preserve Chinese 
territorial and administrative entity, protect all rights 
guaranteed by treaty and international law to friendly 
powers, and safeguard for the world the principle of 
equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese 
Empire." The disinterested character of American 
policy toward China lent special force to the memo- 
randum of March i, 1901, in which Secretary Hay 
protested against the confirmation of a bargain then re- 
ported to be pending between Russia and China in regard 
to the Russian occupation of Manchuria. It was 
pointed out that since all the powers then engaged in 
joint negotiation over matters Chinese had recognized 
the necessity of preserving the territorial integrity of the 
Empire, it was obviously advantageous to China to con- 
tinue the existing international understanding upon this 
subject. Accordingly, the Secretary added: "It would 
be unwise and dangerous in the extreme for China to 
make any arrangements or to consider any proposition 
of a private nature, involving the surrender of territory 
or financial obligations by convention with any partic- 
ular power." Our diplomacy on this occasion went to 



114 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the utmost limit of peaceful protest in expressing on 
the part of our Government its sense of the impropriety, 
inexpediency and even extreme danger to the interests 
of China of considering any private territorial or financial 
arrangements, at least without the full knowledge and 
approval of all the Treaty Powers, 

A year later, a still more emphatic protest was ad- 
dressed to the Russian and Chinese Governments, and 
the whole purpose of our diplomacy in China was frankly 
avowed to be the furtherance of our trade. In this note 
of February i, 1902, it was declared that any agreement 
whereby China gives any corporation or company the 
exclusive right or privilege of opening mines, establish- 
ing railroads, or in any other way industrially developing 
Manchuria, could only be viewed with the gravest con- 
cern by the Government of the United States. The 
reason alleged was that such an agreement would con- 
stitute a monopoly involving a distinct breach of the 
stipulations of the treaties concluded between China and 
foreign powers, and thereby seriously affecting the rights 
of American citizens. Such an agreement would restrict 
their rightful trade, exposing it to be discriminated 
against, interfered with, or otherwise jeopardized. It 
would, moreover, strongly tend permanently to impair 
Chinese sovereign rights in this part of her Empire, 
while seriously interfering with her ability to meet her 
international obligations. Mr. Hay perceived very 
clearly the far-reaching consequences of the struggle over 
China, which was then in progress, and while he was 
perfectly aware that the United States would never resort 
to war on any such issue as the arrest of the Russian 
advance in North China, his protests and his warnings 
lack nothing either of frankness or decision. He 
bluntly informed the Russian Government that any such 
concession as it was then seekins: to extort from China 



AMERICA'S TRADE WITH CHINA 115 

would undoubtedly be followed by demands from other 
powers for similar equally extensive advantages else- 
where in the Chinese Empire, and the inevitable result 
must be the complete wreck of the policy of absolute 
equality of treatment to all nations respecting trade, 
navigation and commerce, within the confines of the 
Empire. 

There are critics of our Far Eastern policy who in- 
sist that, commercially speaking, we have been sowing 
in a barren field. Mr. Morse has clearly expounded, 
with all the authority which comes from intimate knowl- 
edge and long experience, the history and economics of 
the foreign trade of China. Of the future of that trade 
it is possible to indulge in the most sanguine or in the 
most pessimistic expectations, according to the point of 
view of the observer. There is the broad fact of a 
people numbering some four hundred millions, whose 
rank and file are recognized as the most capable in- 
dustrial units in the world, occupying a territory, in- 
cluding Mongolia, of four million square miles, possess- 
ing all the resources that go to make nations rich, but 
whose foreign trade amounts to only a dollar per head of 
the population. There is surely a tremendous margin 
for increase here, and it is perhaps natural to expect, 
with China's new hospitality for Western ideas, that her 
trade should grow by leaps and bounds. In the case 
of China's eastern neighbor, the development of com- 
merce under the stimulus of a more progressive type of 
civilization, has been sufficiently remarkable. The new 
era in Japan is less than forty years old, and as recently 
as 1878 the foreign commerce of the country amounted 
to less than 60,000,000 yen, or $30,000,000. But in 1898 
it was over 440,000,000 yen, and by 1908, which was a 
bad year in Japan as elsewhere, a total of 814,500,000 yen 
was attained. The average foreign trade of Japan for 



ii6 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the last five years has been equal to about $io per head 
of the population. Japan is a much poorer country 
than China, but, obviously, were the combined exports 
and imports of China to be in proportion to those of 
Japan, it would be able to show a foreign trade of 
$4,000,000,000. 

After listening to Mr. Morse, you will begin to under- 
stand why it is too soon to expect the experience of 
Japan to be duplicated in China, and you will appreciate 
the necessity of keeping the expectations of China's 
foreign trade within modest bounds. But the increase 
in the foreign trade of the Middle Kingdom is not with- 
out its impressiveness. In 1864, its total value was 
$153,000,000; in 1874, $198,000,000; and by 1890, it had 
gone to $270,000,000. In 1901 this trade was valued 
at $310,000,000, and last year, albeit business was de- 
pressed, it amounted to $436,000,000. There are two 
considerations adverted to by Mr. Morse which must be 
borne in mind in dealing with these figures. One is that 
the Haikwan Tael, in which the value of all imports and 
exports is stated, is merely a given weight of silver, and 
therefore varies in value with the fluctuations in the price 
of silver. But if the actual increase in commerce may 
not be so great as the increase in value, measured by 
Haikwan Taels, would indicate, the further fact is to be 
taken into account that many articles, both of import and 
export, have decreased materially in value during the 
period covered by our comparison. 

The share of the United States in this trade has been 
a steadily growing one. It amounted to $21,000,000 in 
1888, $30,000,000 in 1898, and $48,000,000 in 1908. In 
other words, in the ten years in which the trade of China 
has grown 40 per cent., our American share of it has 
increased 60 per cent. In the decline of the value of im- 
ports into China last year, all countries shared except 



AMERICA'S TRADE WITH CHINA 117 

the United States and Russia. The objection is some- 
times made that with the development of manufactures 
in China, our possibiHties of selhng her the products of 
our own looms and factories must diminish. But it hap- 
pens that our share in the foreign trade of Japan has 
steadily increased side by side with the development of 
Japan into a manufacturing nation. Our proportion of 
Japan's foreign trade in 1881 was 5.72 per cent. ; by 1898 
it had grown to 14.57 per cent., and reached 24 per cent, 
in 1908. According to the Financial and Economic 
Annual of Japan, the United States takes the lead among 
the countries participating in its foreign trade with ex- 
ports and imports amounting to 211,000,000 yen, followed 
at almost equal distances by China with 144,000,000 yen 
and Great Britain with 138,000,000 yen. 

These figures may at least dispose of the common but 
no less transparent fallacy, that the growth of our ex- 
ports to any given nation may be injuriously affected by 
the material development and growth in the wealth of 
that nation. This fallacy was dealt with in his char- 
acteristically direct and vigorous fashion by President, 
then Secretary Taft, in a notable speech delivered on 
his visit to Shanghai in October, 1907. He declared on 
that occasion that he was not one of those who viewed 
with alarm the effect of the growth of China, with her 
teeming millions, into a great industrial empire. He be- 
lieved that this instead of injuring foreign trade with 
China would greatly increase it, and while it might 
change its character in some respects, it would not 
diminish its profits, and he added that " a trade which 
depends for its profits on the backwardness of a people 
in developing their own resources and upon their inability 
to value at the proper relative prices that which they have 
to sell and that which they have to buy, is not one that 
can be counted upon as stable or permanent." Nor did 



Ii8 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

it seem to Mr. Taft that the cry of " China for the 
Chinese," should frighten anyone. As he regarded the 
matter, that merely signified that China should devote 
her energies to the development of her immense re- 
sources, to the elevation of her industrious people, to the 
enlargement of her trade, and to the administrative re- 
form of the Empire as a great national government. 
Since our greatest export trade is with the countries 
most advanced in business methods and in the develop- 
ment of their individual resources, changes of this kind 
could only increase our trade with China. 

But the fact remains that neither our trade with China 
nor that of any other nation can be placed on a satis- 
factory basis while China neglects the internal reforms 
that are needed to enable her to hold the place which 
belongs to her among the nations of the world. As 
Professor Jenks will tell you, there can be no real prog- 
ress in China while the currency of the country remains 
in its present demoralized condition. At no point can 
division of authority be more fatal than in determining 
the standard of a nation's coinage and providing the 
basis of security for its circulating notes. The most 
serious problem at present confronting China, is how to 
bring about the subordination of Provincial to National 
interests; how to secure for the Government at Peking 
sufficient power and resources to enable it to discharge 
the obligations it has assumed by treaties with the other 
nations of the world. On the success with which 
efficiency, responsibility and authority become recognized 
attributes of the Central Government of China, must de- 
pend the future history of the Empire. As Mr. Taft 
put the case at Shanghai : " A nation of the conserva- 
tive traditions of China must accept changes gradually, 
but it is a pleasure to know and to say that in every im- 
provement which she aims at she has the deep sympathy 



AMERICA'S TRADE WITH CHINA 119 

of America, and that there never can be any jealousy or 
fear on the part of the United States due to China's in- 
dustrial or political development, provided always that it 
is directly along the lines of peaceful prosperity and the 
maintenance of law and order, and the rights of the in- 
dividual, native or foreign. She has no territory we 
long for, and can have no prosperity which we would 
grudge her, and no political power and independence 
as an empire, justly exercised, which we would resent. 
With her enormous resources, and with her industrious 
people, the possibilities of her future cannot be over- 
stated." 



VII 

-MONETARY CONDITIONS IN CHINA 

The present conditions in China from many points of 
view are most encouraging; and yet in many instances 
the encouragement seems to come from the fact that 
conditions appear most desperate. There is no doubt that 
for most of the time during the last six or eight years 
there has been a steady progress toward the adoption of 
Western ideas. Western education is making progress; 
there is a considerable extension of railways; the tele- 
graph is much more generally used; there is a real be- 
ginning of a modern post-office system; and perhaps 
best of all, the temper of the officials and of the people 
seems to demand progress. And yet the problems are 
very grave ; so grave that they must soon be solved, and 
China can solve them. Most noteworthy of all, perhaps, 
is the financial weakness. Foreigners resident in China, 
who seem to be close in touch with governmental affairs, 
and newspaper writers who are generally very well in- 
formed, do not hesitate to predict disaster unless improve- 
ment is made in the near future. I may perhaps ven- 
ture to quote a few words from letters. 

" The new government is not being such a great suc- 
cess as was hoped for. . . . The whole government 
is drifting toward trouble. . . . Besides the drift- 
ing do-nothing policy of the government, the greatest 
danger to China to-day, in my opinion, is the ease with 
which she can borrow foreign capital. They are at it all 
the time ; the imperial government, the provincial govern- 
ments, the different boards in Peking, etc., and but little 



122 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

of this money is used for the object specified when the 
loan was made. God knows where it goes to and where 
the interest will come from. . . . All of the revenues 
are much less than at any time during the last fifteen 
years, and with the reduction in the opium crop, will be 
much smaller. I do not see how the result can be any- 
thing but the appointment in the end of an international 
financial board to take charge of the revenues and ad- 
minister them the same as was done in Egypt. It will 
surely come to this unless the Chinese Government gets 
some reliable financial adviser and follows his advice. 
Whatever they do, affairs were never in a more critical 
and serious condition and the imminence of a revolution 
was never greater. The army is not being paid, the 
discipline is slack and more slack, and the soldiers boast 
that Yuan Shih-kai is the only chief who paid them one 
hundred cents to the dollar. All of the above is not a 
scare-head of my own. The better class of Chinese and 
most of the legations feel the same and talk about it." 

The same prediction regarding an international 
financial board appeared in the London Times, accom- 
panied by statements showing how almost impossible it 
seemed to be for the Government to meet its obligations. 
There can be little doubt that if China should fail to 
meet the interest on her foreign debts when it was due, 
the question of control that would amount to a financial 
receivership, would immediately be raised. Nothing 
could be worse for China than any result of this kind, 
and everything possible should be done to prevent it. 

In the opinion of most people, no single step could 
be taken which would tend so strongly toward placing 
the Government on a financial basis, and removing also 
many administrative difficulties, as the reform of the 
monetary system. The state of chaos in which that re- 
mains, and which seems to be getting worse as time 



MONETARY CONDITIONS IN CHINA 123 

goes on, increases the temptation for the officials to make 
use of the " squeeze " in their dealings with the people, 
while at the same time the varying exchange lessens the 
revenue that is received into the government treasury. It 
is therefore well worth while to consider seriously the 
monetary conditions and to study somewhat the methods 
to improve them. 

The evils of the system are so well known that one 
need not give many details. It is perhaps sufficient to 
say for the benefit of those who are not familiar with 
Chinese conditions, that the so-called unit of the sys- 
tem, the tael, means merely a certain weight of silver : 
that this weight varies in different provinces, and even 
in different districts and cities, so that there are scores 
of them in China, there being no single standard. 
Usually in making payments in taels, they must be 
weighed out as so much butter would be. In certain 
localities, however, particularly where there are many 
foreigners, instead of these weights of silver, the taels, 
coins called dollars are used. In some places these are 
the Mexican dollars ; in others, they are dollars coined 
by the different provinces at a weight substantially equal 
to that of the Mexican dollar. Many of the mints, how- 
ever, have not maintained the standard accurately, so 
that the coins of some provinces are not received in other 
provinces except at a discount ; and in all cases these 
coins depend for their value largely upon the value of 
silver bullion. 

For small transactions cash, that is, copper coins, are 
used. These also differ greatly in kind, and the system 
of counting them varies in different localities. A few 
years ago several of the provinces started the coinage 
of ten cash pieces in order that they might make a profit 
from the coins. Finding this business was adding to 
their revenue, they issued more and more, until they 



124 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

have been very greatly depreciated, vv^ith the usual dis- 
turbance to prices and wages. 

There are very many banks, foreign and native, and 
small cash shops that make their profits from changing 
these various kinds of currency from one to the other. 
Bank notes are issued in both taels and dollars, and even 
in the small cash, some of the little cash shops issuing 
private notes for sums of only a few cents. With no 
inspection in many cases, little care is taken to keep a 
reserve of specie back of these bank notes, so that beyond 
the immediate locality in which they are issued they 
have little currency. The only way in which the matter 
can be summed up is by the use of the word " chaos." 

The ill effect of this lack of system upon business can 
be readily appreciated. The Chinese Government must 
pay its foreign obligations in gold. Its revenues are 
largely collected in silver or in copper at some rate of 
exchange with silver. Of late silver has been much de- 
preciated in value as compared with gold, so that there 
has been a steady lessening of the revenues in terms of 
gold, and at the same time the Government has assured 
the people at various times that their taxes would not be 
raised. The result is that the Government is continually 
striving to find some means of raising revenues which 
seem to be different from a regular increase in taxes. 

Besides the Government debt payments, however, im- 
ports from foreign countries must generally be paid for 
in gold, while the products of China which are to be ex- 
ported, though paid for in silver within the country, are 
to be sold abroad at gold rates. The result is that all 
international trade is highly speculative, and the thought 
of the merchants must be largely upon the rates of ex- 
change, rather than upon the quality of their goods and 
the normal prices. 

The internal trade also is greatly hampered by the 



MONETARY CONDITIONS IN CHINA 125 

varying kinds of taels and of cash, and the changing rates 
of exchange among them, to say nothing of the tolls that 
are taken by the cash shops and the bankers. 

For the last few years the price of silver has been 
falling, so that now the rate of exchange is much lower 
than it was in earlier years. Some writers and business 
men are of the opinion that a declining rate of exchange 
or even a low rate of exchange, stimulates the export 
trade, and in consequence is a good thing for a country. 
One man who seemed to think that he was a friend of 
China, stated not long since that he would like to see 
China on a silver basis, but all other countries on a gold 
basis, inasmuch as China would profit thereby, appar- 
ently for the reason given above. This view that a de- 
clining rate of exchange benefits a country because it 
stimulates exports, is mistaken. Doubtless as the rate of 
exchange lowers so that more silver dollars are required 
to equal in value one dollar in gold, prices of products in 
the silver country would tend to increase slightly in terms 
of silver; but the stimulus to export comes also in part 
from the added foreign demand caused by the fact that 
the gold price is declining. To pay for a fixed quantity 
of products produced in the gold country, it will take a 
steadily increasing quantity of the products produced in 
the silver country, if the price of silver steadily depre- 
ciates. This doubtless increases the exports, but the 
trade, looked at in terms of living, is less profitable for 
the silver country nevertheless. Although the wages in 
the silver country may remain the same, or may even 
slightly increase in terms of silver money, if reckoned 
in terms of purchasing power of products produced in 
the gold country, they are declining. It can hardly be 
said that the stimulation of the export trade at the ex- 
pense of a steady loss in quantity of products received 
for a fixed quantity exported, is a gain to the country. 



126 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

A careful statistical study of the exports and imports 
of the leading products of Mexico for a number of years 
during the time that the value of silver or gold as com- 
pared with silver was declining, establishes this fact be- 
yond question so far as Mexico is concerned; thus ex- 
perience seems to tally with reason. Some careful 
studies -Cvere also made by Mr. Hippisley regarding the 
imports and exports of China at various periods when 
the price of the tael was changing rapidly. The results 
seem to show that it is impossible to establish the fact 
that China has made any real gains from the declining 
value of silver. The implication is clearly the other way. 
And yet it may possibly be that individual merchants have 
increased their export trade to a considerable degree, and 
it is possible that they also have made larger profits. 

It is also possible that a low rate of exchange in a 
country where wages are low, may in some degree, 
tempt foreign capital to come into the country. This in 
itself is a good thing, provided there is no compensating 
loss. It is clearly a better thing, however, for condi- 
tions to be such that real wages in terms of purchasing 
power will be increased, and the general standard of liv- 
ing of the people raised, rather than that foreign capital 
be tempted into the country to exploit it by sending out 
increasing quantities of exports for a fixed quantity of 
imports. 

Enough has been said perhaps regarding the evils of 
the present system on the silver basis with the fluctuating 
rates of exchange. The question remains, what can best 
be done? 

( I ) All authorities are agreed that the most important 
step to be taken is to secure one uniform system so 
that everywhere throughout China, the various coins, from 
the smallest in value to the greatest, shall be interchange- 
able at fixed rates. The only people who would be op- 



MONETARY CONDITIONS IN CHINA 127 

posed to such a reform would be the owners of the cash 
shops, and possibly of the smaller banks who are making 
their living from exchanges in money due to this lack 
of uniformity, and certain officials and traders who can 
more easily make dishonest " squeeze." 

(2) In spite of what has been said of the few people 
who advocate the permanent retention of the silver 
standard by China, most authorities agree that it would 
be best for China to be placed on the gold basis as soon 
as that is practicable. There is, however, an important 
difference of opinion as to whether China should en- 
deavor first to establish a uniform system on the silver 
basis and then later, as opportunity offers, go from the 
silver basis to the gold basis; or whether it would be 
wiser to establish the new monetary system on the gold 
basis from the beginning. 

Those who favor the establishment of a uniform sys- 
tem on the silver basis urge two reasons for this policy: 
first, that China is poor, has not the gold necessary to 
establish a gold system and cannot secure the gold with- 
out incurring a heavy debt ; and second, that even if she 
were to secure gold at the present time, it would prob- 
ably not be possible for her to keep it, as they think the 
balance of trade is against her, and the gold would be 
certainly exported to pay for the excess of imports over 
exports. 

The Commission on International Exchange, the 
American Commission that investigated this subject when 
the Government of China, requested that of the United 
States to assist in giving to China a gold standard cur- 
rency, recommended a monetary system on what it called 
the gold exchange basis instead of the gold basis. In 
brief, the difference between the two systems is this : A 
country on the gold basis regularly has gold coins for 
the standard currency, which are regularly in circula- 



128 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

tion among the people. As fractional currency these 
countries have silver, nickel and copper coins, these 
usually being token coins circulating at a value consider- 
ably above their bullion value. 

A country that has a gold exchange system such as 
the Philippines, or India, or the Straits Settlements, does 
not coin gold and place it in circulation within the coun- 
try. It has instead a standard silver coin of full legal 
tender, a token coin, circulating at a value considerably 
above its value as bullion and maintained at this value 
on a fixed parity with gold. The fractional coins are 
likewise all maintained at a fixed parity with one another 
with the standard silver coin and with gold. The gold 
standard unit is not a coin for circulation, but a fixed 
quantity of gold with which the value of the silver coins 
can readily be compared, and with which they are main- 
tained at a fixed rate. 

In a country that is accustomed to the use of silver 
and particularly in a country where the standard of living 
is low, and many of the transactions are on a very small 
scale, silver is more convenient for circulation than gold, 
and the people in the Far East are, generally speaking, 
accustomed to that. Gold under those conditions is not 
needed at all for domestic use, but is needed only to pay 
for products imported from gold standard countries, or 
to pay obligations due to gold standard countries. Under 
those circumstances, it is sufficient if a resident of the 
country wishes to secure gold from the Government or 
from a national bank, to which has been given the gen- 
eral oversight of the monetary system, to furnish him, 
instead of the actual gold, a bill of exchange payable in 
gold in the foreign country where the obligation is due. 
The standard silver coins can be paid in to the treasury 
or to the bank at their par value, and the bill of exchange 
sold for the usual commercial rates or for a charsfe 



MONETARY CONDITIONS IN CHINA 129 

slightly above those rates, if it is thought best for the 
Government not regularly to intervene in ordinary busi- 
ness transactions, but to take part in such trans- 
actions only when it is necessary to maintain the 
parity of the silver coins. It will readily be seen that 
this selling of gold exchange at a fixed rate, to be paid 
for in the silver coins, would have the same effect toward 
maintaining the parity of the coins with gold as would 
the delivery of the actual gold for shipment, provided 
the rate of exchange charged were the same. Even if 
it were a fraction of one per cent, higher, this would 
not be sufficient to affect in any way the value of the 
silver coins in local trade. 

There are several advantages for a country like China 
of the gold exchange system as compared with the gold 
system. In the first place, as has already been intimated, 
a silver currency is better adapted to the standard of liv- 
ing and the ordinary customs of trade of the country. 
Second, it is very much cheaper, and in a country con- 
stituted as is China at the present time, this is very im- 
portant. Not nearly so much gold would be needed to 
maintain the parity of the silver coins in this way as 
would be needed for circulation within the country itself. 
Third, there would be much less Hkelihood of the gold 
reserve, which in either case is necessary for the main- 
tenance of the parity of the silver coin, being exhausted 
if the Government maintains the absolute control of its 
reserve through this system of selling exchange. More- 
over, in case there should be a drain on the gold reserve, 
it is much easier to replenish it. The rule in the coun- 
tries maintaining the gold exchange standard is to with- 
draw from circulation the silver paid in to the govern- 
ment treasury to purchase gold orders on a foreign 
country, in order that any tendency toward over-issue of 
the silver coins may thus be checked and their parity be 



I30 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

maintained in part by a normal adaptation of quantity 
in circulation to the demand. In this way the treasury 
adds to its stock of silver whenever it depletes its stock 
of g'old, and although if the coins are token coins the 
amount thus collected in the treasury would be less in 
bullion value by the amount of seignorage of the coins, it 
would still be more than ample to cover any possibility 
of the exhaustion of the gold reserve. By selling the 
silver itself abroad as bullion if necessary, the country 
could thus replenish its gold reserve abroad. It would 
never be possible for the business of a country to go on 
satisfactorily with any considerable proportion of its 
standard coins withdrawn from circulation. Their value 
would surely go up so promptly as to prevent any serious 
drain on the gold reserve. 

Another very great advantage in the establishment of 
the gold exchange standard from the beginning, is that 
a very large profit, amounting to scores of millions of 
dollars, would be made by China if the gold exchange 
standard were adopted at once, which would be lost 
entirely if the system were established first on a uniform 
silver basis which afterward was to be changed to gold. 
When the system is fully established on the gold basis, 
the silver coins in either event will be token coins of a 
value presumably from 20 to 40 per cent, below their face 
value. If issued at that rate, in the case of a country 
so populous as China, this means, of course, an enormous 
profit. Most, if not all, of this profit should be used to 
purchase gold to maintain the parity of the coins, al- 
though eventually, when the system is thoroughly estab- 
lished, it is possible that not all of this seignorage would 
be needed for that purpose. 

Moreover, if the coins when issued, were issued at par, 
there would be no disturbance to the business of the 



MONETARY CONDITIONS IN CHINA 131 

country such as that which comes from a shifting of the 
monetary standard. On the other hand, if they were 
issued at their bulHon value and then afterward gradually 
raised from 20 to 30 per cent, above that value, it would 
certainly produce the business depression that regularly 
comes from a contracting currency and falling prices, 
an effect upon business which would probably need to be 
continued over a period of years, and which, beyond 
doubt, would be a serious blow to industry. If one 
wishes to get the benefit of experience in this direction, 
let him compare the relatively little disturbance to busi- 
ness in the Philippines of the introduction of their new 
monetary system, and particularly the total absence of 
disturbance of business from the change in the monetary 
system, when new coins of lighter weight were intro- 
duced, with the disturbance in India and especially in the 
Straits Settlements when their new systems were placed 
on the gold basis. The experience of these countries, 
as well as reason, seems to make it clear that it would 
be much wiser for China in establishing the new system, 
to adopt the gold exchange system, and especially to issue 
her new silver coins from the beginning at a parity with 
gold. 

There are, of course, certain difficulties in the way of 
the establishment of this new monetary system, and these 
difficulties must not be under-estimated. In the first 
place, some of the foreign countries, the business of 
whose banks might be affected somewhat, might need 
to be dealt with, although all of the leading countries 
have already agreed at the instance of the Commission 
on International Exchange that they would welcome a 
gold standard for China. If, however, in order to estab- 
lish such a system on a firm basis it should be necessary 
for China to restrict rather carefully the provisions re- 



132 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

garding the importation and exportation of silver or 
gold bullion or coins, there might be some further ques- 
tion. 

In the second place, beyond doubt many of the Chinese 
officials who have made large profits from the fluctua- 
tions and uncertainties in the values of the different 
coins, might be unwilling to see these chances removed. 
The cash shops and some of the smaller bankers would 
probably also object because their exchange business 
would be gone. On the other hand, the larger banks 
would probably not object to the change. They might 
well expect that their loss in exchange would be more 
than offset by their increased business in loans and dis- 
counts. Such seems to have been the experience, at any 
rate, of the foreign banks in Japan upon the establish- 
ment of her new monetary system on the gold basis. 

There are also some people who delight in specula- 
tion and whose interest in other mercantile business is 
largely dependent upon its speculative aspects. These 
also might deplore the change. On the other hand, all 
those people, Chinese and foreigners alike, who have 
the real welfare of China at heart, certainly wish the 
establishment of the best monetary system possible, and 
those who have given most study to the subject are 
agreed that as soon as it is practicable that system should 
be established on the gold basis. It is the belief of the 
writer that the establishment of a gold exchange system 
would be practicable immediately from the economic 
point of view. He also hopes that from the political 
point of view there need not be a long delay before the 
establishment of such a system. 



VIII 

THE PRESENT SITUATION IN MANCHURIA 
—COMMERCE, TRADE, AND INTER- 
NATIONAL POLITICS 

The history of the Far East for some years to come 
depends upon the fate of Manchuria. Shall China here 
be allowed peacefully to develop, to consolidate her 
strength and to work out her own salvation free from 
alien interference, or will Japan, poor in resources but 
rich in disciplined efficiency, be successful in her en- 
deavor politically to dominate and to direct the com- 
mercial growth of her continental neighbor ? That is the 
Eastern Question. 

In the old days when Tartars fought Koreans In the 
mountains north of Tumen and Yalu, when the valley 
of the Sungari was ruled by the Kin Dynasty before the 
conquests of Genghis Khan, history was made in the 
region now known as the " Three Eastern Provinces." 
Later, when the last of the Mings ruled feebly at Peking, 
Nurhachu, first with but a small band, then with an 
army of sturdy mountaineers, defeated the Chinese 
forces east of the Liao and set up his standard at Muk- 
den. His sons, sweeping all before them, occupied the 
Dragon Throne. Nearly three hundred years passed by 
during which the conquerors, fearful lest they lose their 
prize, were scattered throughout China, and the fertile 
but war-blighted plain of the Liao settled afresh by im- 
migrants from " within the wall." ^ During this period 

1 Points to the south and west of Shanhaikuan where the 
Great Wall of China meets the sea are called " within the 
wall." 

133 



134 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

little was heard of Manchuria, and though a " second 
capital " with its five " great Boards," Rites, Works, 
Treasury, War, and Punishments was maintained at 
Mukden, the three provinces were loosely administered 
by Tartar Generals — military governors — with more re- 
gard for the purses of the officials than the welfare of 
the people or the development of the country. 

During the Chino- Japanese War in 1894-5 there was 
some fighting about Haicheng and Newchwang in south- 
ern Manchuria, and Japan after her victory received a 
grant of territory embracing the Liaotung peninsula and 
its hinterland. Through the intervention of Russia, 
France, and Germany, however, this was ceded back to 
China in return for a handsome indemnity. Japan ousted, 
Russia took her place first, in 1896, securing the conces- 
sion for a railway through Central Manchuria, then the 
lease of Port Arthur, and the right to build a line from 
Harbin to Dalny. During the unsettled years that fol- 
lowed the Boxer uprising of 1900, Russia's influence was 
extended, and her failure to complete the evacuation of 
Chinese territory — Newchwang and neighboring towns — 
in October, 1903, brought on the crisis which culminated 
in the war with Japan. 

It is unnecessary to dwell upon the history of that 
struggle. Russia desired an ice-free port. More than 
that, she wished to retain under her control the northern 
portion of Korea. In this Japan refused to acquiesce, for 
it was imperative that she break the strategic line between 
Port Arthur and Vladivostok. Japan to-day holds 
Korea while her railway from Kuangchengtzu to Port 
Arthur gives her a splendid political and commercial 
pied a terre in southern Manchuria. Russia, on the other 
hand, still has her line from Manchuria station to Pro- 
granichnaya, with its southern branch from Harbin to 
Kuangchengtzu, and China has now undertaken the diffi- 



THE SITUATION IN MANCHURIA 135 

cult task of attempting to establish an efficient adminis- 
tration in a territory over whose most important com- 
munications she has no control. 

The three Manchurian provinces, Fengtien, Kirin, and 
Heilungchiang, contain respectively 60,000, 110,000, and 
190,000 square miles. Fengtien, the southermost prov- 
ince, is the best settled and most fully developed of the 
three, with a population of about 8,000,000 ; Kirin having 
but 4,000,000; and Hailungchiang only 1,500,000 inhab- 
itants ; a total population of 13,500,000, in a region which, 
if the Chinese provinces of Chihli and Shantung may 
serve as a criterion, should support at least 130,000,000 
persons. 

Only the southwestern, central southern and eastern 
portions of Manchuria are at present under cultivation, 
the valley of the Liao being well tilled and the banks of 
the Sungari fairly so. The annual grain production, 
however, has been roughly valued at about $40,000,000 
gold. The principal crops are beans, sorghum, millet 
(kaoliang), small millet, maize, and barley. Hemp and 
tobacco are raised to meet local needs, and the latter is 
now used by the British American Tobacco Company in 
its Mukden cigarette factory. 

Wheat has been grown along the Sungari and used to 
a certain extent by natives, but principally by Russian 
flour mills at Harbin and Blagovestchensk. There re- 
main vast tracts of good wheat country in Kirin and 
Heilungchiang, where the climate differs little from that 
of our own State of Dakota. 

The forests of Kirin, covering between 10,000 and 20,- 
000 square miles, have not been exploited. The Japanese- 
Chinese Joint Timber Company, organized under Article 
X of the Chino-Japanese Agreement of December 22, 
1905, will fell the timber along the Yalu River, in south- 
eastern Manchuria, but the wooded tracts to the north, 



136 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

on the watersheds of the Sungari and Mudan, and on 
the Chinese bank of the Ussuri River, are still practically 
in their virgin state. 

Coal has thus far been given the most intelligent at- 
tention. The Fushun colliery, operated by the Japanese 
South Manchurian railway, and the Penhsihu mine, on 
the Mukden-Antung route, are now worked by modern 
methods. The Yentai mine, opened by Russians, has 
been left untouched thus far by Japanese. There are 
native workings near Liaoyang and Tiehling in Fengtien, 
at Heilungchiang, and in central and southeastern Kirin, 
and near Mergen, on the main road to Aigun in Heilung- 
chiang province, with small Russian mines near Kuang- 
chengtzu and at one or two other points. 

Gold has been discovered along the streams of south- 
east Kirin, on the Tumen and upper Yalu, on the banks 
of the Mudan and Sungari, and on both the Chinese and 
Russian sides of the Amur, as well as along the Nonni 
River, which runs generally southward through Heilung- 
chiang to join the Sungari. 

Copper and silver mines have been roughly worked by 
Chinese, and tin, lead, asbestos and other minerals have 
been discovered. 

Statistics of Manchurian trade are unsatisfactory, ow- 
ing to the extraordinary conditions that have prevailed 
since 1900, with the Boxer uprising, the Russian occupa- 
tion, and the Russo-Japanese War, The total trade pass- 
ing through the Imperial maritime customs houses in 
Manchuria during the year 1907 amounted to $37,015,- 
808.25 gold. The customs houses at Dalny, Antung 
and Tatungkow were opened, however, for only a por- 
tion of the year, and, taking this into consideration, and 
including a rough estimate of the very extensive native 
overland traffic between the " Three Eastern Provinces " 
and China proper and Mongolia, and the important, 



THE SITUATION IN -MANCHURIA 137 

though by no means negligible, frontier trade with the 
Russian Far East, the figure would probably be doubled. 

The principal exports are beans and bean cake, of 
which 15% of the former and 85% of the latter used to 
go to Japan. During the past year, however, the Mitsui 
Bussan Kaisha, a powerful Japanese concern, has created 
a considerable European trade in bean products. The 
heaviest imports are American, Japanese and English 
cotton goods, American kerosene and flour, British- 
American cigarettes, and general merchandise. 

Under the treaty of Aigun of 1858 navigation on the 
Sungari, the Amur and the Ussuri Rivers is reserved to 
Russia and China. The Chinese up to the present time 
own nothing but a few junks on these streams. Russian 
companies, however, have a fleet of over two hundred 
steamers and four hundred barges, drawing from two to 
five feet, which ply between Harbin, Habarovsk and 
Blagovestchensk. Smaller steamers are operated on the 
Sungari between Harbin, Petuna and Kirin, and on the 
upper Amur and Shilka to Stretensk, and on the Argun. 

On the Sungari are the cities of Kirin, Petuna, Har- 
bin and Sansing, and the prosperous towns of Peituan 
lintzu and Heilampo. 

The Liao River, which debouches into the Gulf of 
Pechili at Newchwang, is navigable for vessels drawing 
up to two feet for about 150 miles from its mouth, and 
fleets of junks annually carry a large portion of the bean 
crop to the coast. The river passes not far from Faku- 
men and Hsinmintun, while Tungchiangtzu and Tiehling 
are located on its banks. 

Smaller streams belonging to these three great river 
systems are navigable at certain seasons of the year for 
Hght draft vessels. 

Before the railways came Manchuria depended prin- 
cipally, however, upon her roads for the transport of 



138 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

produce to the coasts and of imports into the interior. 
The winters are cold, but there is comparatively little 
snow. From November until March therefore the high- 
ways are beaten hard by the wheels of countless vehicles' 
which, dragged by from two to six or seven animals, ply 
between the main trade marts. Perils of the road there 
are, but with the presence of well-disciplined troops and 
the perfection of rural police organization the " hung- 
hutse," or bandits, have gradually disappeared and 
ceased to prey upon the cart trains and to levy black- 
mail on the merchants as of yore. 

The largest cities on the Russian railway system in 
Manchuria are Kuangchengtzu, Harbin, Ninguta and 
Tsitsihar, the first being commercially the most impor- 
tant. 

At Kuangchengtzu the Japanese railway system meets 
the Russian line and will eventually connect with the 
proposed Chino-Japanese railway from Kirin to this 
point. The South Manchurian railway runs south from' 
Kuangchengtzu to the ice-free port of Dalny, with con- 
nection to Newchwang and Port Arthur and a narrow 
gauge, commercially useless, branch line from Mukden 
to Antung, at the mouth of the Yalu. The principal 
cities touched in addition to those mentioned are Kai- 
yuan, Changtu, Tiehling and Liao-yang. 

The earnings for the year ending March 31, 1908, 
during which period the road was gauged at three feet 
six inches and the rolling stock was insufficient, amounted 
to $4,740,387.96 gold. 

The Chinese Imperial railways of North China join 
the Japanese system at Mukden, running from that city 
through Hsinmintun to Kaopantzu, whence a branch 
line runs to Newchwang, and thence to Tientsin and 
Peking. The line touches the important city of Chen- 
chow. 



THE SITUATION IN MANCHURIA 139 

The earnings for the Manchurian, i. e., the Shanhai- 
kuan, Hsinmintun and Newchwang section, amounted in 
1906 to $6,095,544.40, and, in 1907, when the Hsinmin- 
tun-Mukden section was taken over, to a considerably 
larger figure. The exact amount is not obtainable. 

The people of Manchuria have largely emigrated from 
the two northern Chinese provinces of Chihli and Shan- 
tung. Pioneers themselves, they are sober, industrious, 
well-to-do, and comparatively intelligent. They are fond 
of travel, and, like their fellow-provincials in the south, 
would readily avail themselves of improved transporta- 
tion to develop the hitherto uncultivated areas in Kirin 
and Heilungchiang, while the merchants are anxious to 
make connections with reputable foreign firms and stim- 
ulate the import trade. 

The present Manchurian administration was inaug- 
urated in June, 1907. For the first time in the history of 
the " Three Eastern Provinces " there is a single Viceroy 
with authority over the three Governors, chiefs of the 
provincial organizations. An effort has been made with 
satisfactory results to remodel the old administrative ma- 
chinery. The first Viceroy and the Governor of Feng- 
tien province, who were responsible for this endeavor, 
were, however, greatly hampered by the lack of well- 
trained and progressive men. There was, undoubtedly, 
peculation and waste, even under their administration, 
and a close investigation would probably reveal numer- 
ous instances of corruption and incompetence. An hon- 
est and sincere effort, however, is now being made to 
overcome these defects and it is safe to say that Man- 
churia to-day is more efficiently governed than any other 
portion of the Chinese Empire. 

The last Tartar General of Fengtien, predecessor at 
Mukden of the first Viceroy, gave his Province probably 
the first two years of fairly honest government in the 



I40 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

history of Manchuria. His Treasurer admitted the col- 
lection of over 3,000,000 taels, or about $2,000,000, for 
the year from August, 1906, to August, 1907, — probably 
about one-half the sum paid in by the people to the local 
officials. This fact that such a sum could be raised in 
one province immediately after the war and during a 
military occupation proves the potential wealth and pos- 
sibilities of the country, which, it is estimated by compe- 
tent authorities, should yield about $7,500,000 per annum, 
if the revenues were properly administered. 

Aside from the customs duties levied at the open ports 
and the " native customs " returns at Newchwang, which 
go to the central government, the Manchurian admin- 
istration collects for its own use two taxes, " consump- 
tion," practically an import, and " production," an ex- 
port tax, on all native trade and on foreign trade at un- 
opened cities, together with a tobacco tax, wine tax, cart 
tax, live stock tax, and certain other imposts. 

These revenues have scarcely sufficed to meet the 
heavy demands for construction of Government build- 
ings and other public works, the general opening of 
schools of various grades, and the equipment of military 
forces. 

The financial situation in Manchuria is unsatisfactory, 
owing to the numbers of circulating media in use and to 
the elaborate exchange and credit systems which have 
prevailed in but are now disappearing from the principal 
trade centers. The provincial authorities of Kirin and 
Heilungchiang, moreover, have issued large quantities of 
notes, against which they had no adequate reserves, with 
the result that government paper in these two provinces 
is now at a heavy discount. A similar condition which 
existed a year ago in Fengtien has been relieved by care- 
ful administrative measures. 

The Russo-Chinese and Yokohama Specie Banks are' 



THE SITUATION IN MANCHURIA 141 

the only foreign institutions generally operating in Man- 
churia. The former has recently closed its branches at 
Mukden, Kirin, and Hailar, and, according to late in- 
formation, intends doing likewise with the Kuangcheng- 
tzu and Tsitsihar offices. 

In marked contrast to Russian retrenchment has been 
Japanese extension throughout southern Manchuria. The 
Yokohama Specie Bank has opened offices at New- 
chwang, Dalny, Port Arthur, Liaoyang, Mukden, Tieh- 
ling and Kuangchengtzu and contemplates an installation 
at Kirin and Harbin. It is difficult, however, to ascertain 
whether this rapid expansion has been justified by actual 
profits or been the result of deliberate government policy. 

There are provincial banks at the three Manchurian 
capitals. At Kirin and Tstisihar, and, to a certain ex- 
tent, at Mukden, they have been highly profitable to the 
officials interested therein, but at the two former places 
they have complicated rather than relieved the financial 
situation. 

The Chinese Imperial Government, or Hu Pu, Bank 
has branches at Newchwang, Mukden, Tsitsihar, An- 
tung and Kirin, but has confined its activities thus far 
chiefly to operations in exchange. 

The activities of Japanese and of British and Ameri- 
can firms in Manchuria have proven that the present 
trade of the country is but the beginning of what may 
be expected if transportation facilities are extended, 
fresh immigrants brought in to people the fertile but now 
uninhabited tracts to the north, and intelligent selling 
methods adopted. For American interests, the Standard 
Oil Company has now branches in charge of native 
agents in practically all the principal Manchurian cities. 
The British American Tobacco Company, with a factory 
at Mukden, has Europeans or Americans at the main 
trade centers, and both these concerns have inspectors 



142 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

who regularly visit the various branches to study the de- 
mands of their business. At the agricultural experi- 
ment stations maintained by the Government, American 
farming methods are being practically demonstrated 
with American machines for the benefit of special stu- 
dents and for such farmers as may care to take advantage 
of the opportunities thus afforded them. 

It is because Manchuria's trade is still but a fraction 
of what it may become and because its growth must de- 
pend upon the manner in which, and under whose au- 
spices the country is developed, that the immediate prob- 
lem is political rather than commercial in character. 

There are four chief factors in the situation, some- 
times with similar, sometimes with conflicting interests. 
They are : 

(i.) Russia, who desires to preserve the influence that 
has survived the war ; 

(2.) Japan, who has already profited largely but who 
desires to obtain a permanent and increasing influence ; 

(3.) China, who wishes herself to administer the ter- 
ritory recovered for her from Russia by Japan, without 
commitment to either, and 

(4.) The other trading powers who desire equal com- 
mercial opportunity and to whose interest therefore it is 
to preserve the " open door " and a fair field for their 
merchants. 

Russian interests are now practically confined to the 
so-called " Railway Settlements " on the Chinese Eastern 
Railway, and to her steamship lines on the Sungari, Us- 
suri, and Amur. The merchants established at Harbin, 
Hailar, Tsitsihar and elsewhere depend for their living 
largely on the railroad, its traflic and the thousands of 
employees it has brought to Manchuria. From Hailar 
there is a considerable trade in Mongolian wool and in 
fur. Harbin is the purchasing center for Chinese wheat, 



THE SITUATION IN MANCHURIA 143 

which is ground into flour either there or at Blagovest- 
chensk or Habarovsk on the Amur. The beef supply 
for the railway towns and for the Russian cities on the 
Amur is also largely secured from Mongolia and during 
the summer months large herds of cattle are driven 
north over the highway from Tsitsihar to Aigun. Bar- 
ring cigarettes, cheap spirits and a certain amount of 
cotton prints, locally made flour, and some hardware, 
however, the Chinese buy little from the Russians, re- 
ceiving cash rather than exchanged products for their 
wares. 

Since the war Russia has transferred to China the tele- 
graph lines which she formerly operated in northern 
Manchuria, made an equitable arrangement regarding 
the transmission of messages over the Chinese Eastern 
Railway Company's wires, and reached an equally satis- 
factory understanding concerning the handling of Chi- 
nese Imperial mails. The only important point of dif- 
ference with China at present is that dealing with the ad- 
ministration of the " railway settlements." The question 
is most acute at the largest of these, Harbin, but after 
two years of negotiation it seems likely that the Railway 
Administration, which has heretofore insisted on retain- 
ing control of the city, will consent to the establishment 
of an international settlement modeled on that of Shang- 
hai. 

Japan, on the other hand, has shown little inclination 
to meet China's wishes in her Manchurian negotiations. 
Where Russia has not unnaturally been reluctant to re- 
cede from, Japan has constantly endeavored to better, 
the position in which she found herself at the close of 
the war. She has seized large tracts of land at Antung 
and Kuangchengtzu and other cities along the South 
Manchurian Railway, paying the owners thereof at a 
rate below the market price if at all. With a questionable 



144 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

title she continues to work the Fushun coal mines. The 
operation of the collieries at Penhsihu, near Mukden, 
has been carried on despite the Chinese protest, and the 
methods employed by Japanese officials in charge of the 
Yalu Timber Bureau would long ago have caused seri- 
ous friction had China been in a position to resist. The 
occupation of Chientao, a region in southeastern Man- 
churia, and the actions of the Japanese gendarmeries in 
that district, the recently terminated competition of Japa- 
nese, with the Imperial Chinese Telegraphs, the disre- 
gard of China's postal rights, and the present determi- 
nation of Japan, without China's consent, to commence 
the construction of a broad-gauge road between Muk- 
den and Antung where her treaty provisions only en- 
titled her within a period which terminated April 15, 
1909, to improve a " military railway " built during the 
war, are the more important of the many incidents which 
taken as a whole, and without sufficient evidence to the 
contrary, must be regarded as giving the keynote of 
Japan's Manchurian policy. 

These occurrences, it is true, are perhaps of direct con- 
cern only to China and Japan. That Japanese action, 
however, is not wholly consistent with the spirit cer- 
tainly of her " open door " declarations may be seen 
from her prohibition of the Hsinmintun-Fakumen Rail- 
way, a road which China desired to build with British 
capital, and which would have opened a country now 
only served by cart roads and the river Liao. Mr. Asa- 
kawa in his able discussion of Japan's position in Man- 
churia has failed to touch upon some of the really vital 
points at issue. Mr. Adachi Kinnosuke in the " World's 
Work," however, has frankly virtually stated that Japan 
would dominate Manchuria by right of conquest and has 
then endeavored to prove that such domination would 
be beneficial to American and general trade. 



THE SITUATION IN MANCHURIA 145 

This may or may not be true. The fact remains that 
while Japan drove Russia from Manchuria for the 
avowed purpose of restoring the Three Provinces to 
China and in order to preserve the " open door," she 
now holds to all intents and purposes the same influence 
and position which in Russia's possession she found so 
irreconcilable with her ideas of international equity. So 
much for the theory. Practically Manchuria to-day af- 
fords a better market than ever for foreign goods. The 
communications are better. The people are awake, and 
the officials stimulated by the danger of foreign en- 
croachment are progressive and intelligently striving to 
improve and develop the country. 

It has been to Japan's interest to bolster the Russian 
position in the north, for by so doing she preserves prece- 
dents which she may turn to her own advantage. Rus- 
sia has to choose between one of two courses ; either she 
must stand firm and thus add to the strength of her pos- 
sible future enemy in the south or, as she has seemed 
not disinclined to do, unite with China to check the grow- 
ing power of Japan. China must if possible secure Rus- 
sian support and endeavor also, while strengthening her 
own administration, to encourage general foreign trade. 

To a certain extent this is now being done. The situ- 
ation in Manchuria, however, is peculiar. In other parts 
of China, the " treaty ports," cities where foreigners 
may reside and establish their commercial bases, are 
located either on the sea coast or on the banks of the 
great navigable rivers. But few interior cities have been 
" opened to trade." In Manchuria there are eighteen 
open cities, of which but two, Newchwang and Antung, 
are accessible from the sea. All the principal trade 
marts have been put on the same footing with the ports 
of entry throughout the Empire. Imports from abroad 
having paid the regular customs dues are under the 



146 CHINA" AND THE FAR EAST 

treaties entitled to exemption from local taxation at 
treaty ports. An attempt was made by the Manchurian 
authorities to set aside certain limited areas outside these 
open cities as " foreign settlements " within which for- 
eign goods were to be permitted to enter free from all 
save the generally uniform five per cent, import duty. 
Once the goods should leave the settlements, however, 
the officials were to hold them liable to the " consump- 
tion tax," virtually a likin levy. This point was long 
contested by the consular body at Mukden, which finally 
in theory won its case. Foreign goods in foreign hands 
are no longer subjected to the " inland " imposts. Once 
they enter the charge of the native agents maintained 
by the foreign firms at the smaller treaty ports, however, 
these levies are often made. Complaint at the Yamens 
is generally of little avail, for the Government is not yet 
strong enough to substitute direct for indirect taxation, 
and without the revenue derived from the " consumption 
tax " at these cities, it would be unable to meet running 
expenses. 

It is particularly in regard to these imposts that 
foreign trade generally is obliged to meet unfair Japanese 
competition. Japanese merchants, it is true, and partic- 
ularly the Cotton Exporters Association, which is the 
most formidable rival of the American mills, receive 
special consideration from the Government. Their 
goods are borne to Dalny on subsidized steamships, are 
carried into the interior on the South Manchurian Rail- 
way, which gives rebates in a manner which has hitherto 
proved of little benefit to foreign shippers , and are 
handled on long credits and small interest through the 
assistance of the Yokohama Specie Bank. This Gov- 
ernment policy has greatly assisted Japanese trade, but 
as Mr. Millard, who analyzes Manchurian conditions 
with great skill in his " America and the Far Eastern 



THE SITUATION IN MANCHURIA 147 

Question," has pointed out, the benefactions of a paternal 
government can scarcely be considered just grounds for 
complaint by those competitors whom they place at a 
commercial disadvantage. Real cause for protest, both 
to China and Japan, however, as mentioned above, is to 
be found in the fact that many Japanese merchants, and 
the same condition would probably be found in the north 
among the few Russians there doing business, rightfully 
in the treaty ports, but wrongfully in the interior, refuse 
to pay the " consumption " or " production " taxes. 
These traders are settled in towns unopened to trade 
along the line of the Japanese railway, and have fre- 
quently established themselves in other non-treaty ports 
as well. Chinese protests against their presence have 
been of no avail, and attempts to dislodge them have been 
followed by demands for indemnification from Japanese 
consular authorities. Such merchants compete directly 
with Chinese dealers who handle non- Japanese foreign 
goods, and in one case even offer to carry the agency for 
a foreign firm, claiming as a special advantage to be 
gained, should the connection be made, that there would 
be no " consumption tax " to pay. 

Popular resentment against Japanese actions and lack 
of confidence in the quality of Japanese goods are 
steadily increasing, however, and these facts as well as 
the Japanese lack of capital, even in the face of govern- 
ment subvention, will in the long run tend to lessen the 
menace of Japanese competition to general foreign trade. 
From Russia there is little to fear. 

Manchurian trade development to be rapid, and profit- 
able to those concerned, however, must remain un- 
hampered by interference from abroad. China's sover- 
eignty must be conserved and her power strengthened, 
for an alien domination of Manchuria would but pre- 
cede the extension of the same influence throughout the 



148 



V 



CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 



Empire, To create a substantial foreign commercial in- 
terest, and by so doing secure a political safeguard for 
the " Three Eastern Provinces," is as necessary to 
China's welfare, as the maintenance of her integrity and 
the preservation of the " open door " are essential to the 
full realization of the v^ell-warranted hopes for the 
future of our Eastern markets. 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM— ITS HISTORY AND 
PRESENT CONDITION 

It is as difficult to date exactly the beginning of the 
rise of the opium problem, as we understand it to-day, 
as it is to date exactly the discovery of the narcotic 
properties of the poppy. It may be inferred, however, 
from references made to the poppy in classic literature, 
that, coincident with the first uses of the poppy in medi- 
cine, an abuse of it began. Its lethean qualities were 
sung by the early Greek and Latin poets. 

It is in the more recent times that opium, or the ex- 
tract of the poppy capsule, came to be widely used as a 
stimulant or euphoric, and the poppy deliberately culti- 
vated on a large commercial scale for such purposes. 

Such a use of opium seems to have coincided with 
the rise of Islamism. For as Mohammedanism spread 
over the Near and Far East, the opium problem took 
shape and fastened itself not only on strictly Islamic com- 
munities, but on their neighbors of other faiths. While 
it was inchoate, both in production and traffic, a great 
trading company (the East India Company) appeared 
in the field, and for revenue purposes shaped the pro- 
duction into a firm monopoly, and mortised and tenoned 
it into the trade, commerce and politics of the Far East. 
On so firm a rock was that monopoly founded, that it 
has lasted to this day, and its control of the production 
and traffic in opium has become so intermixed with the 

149 



150 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

morals, economics and politics of the Far East that 
nothing short of the conjoint action of the countries con- 
cerned, would seem to be able to blast it. 

Within the past few years a determined, international 
effort has been made to shake the foundations of the 
opium vice. It will be the purpose of this paper to trace, 
briefly, the birth and growth of the problem, and the 
measures now contemplated for its dissolution. 

To the Greeks we undoubtedly owe the discovery of 
opium. They long had a knowledge of the medicinal 
value of the poppy plant itself, and on the discovery of 
opium they soon learned of the narcotic properties of 
the drug. Hippocrates, in the fifth century, B.C., first 
mentions the juice of poppy capsules, and informs 
us of its properties and uses. By the first Christian cen- 
tury, the drug had been generally introduced to the Near 
East, and its qualities made known. The only opium 
known to commerce at this time was produced in Asia 
Minor, and the distributers of it to Persia, India, the 
East Indian Islands and even China, were the Arabs. 

On the founding of Islamism, and especially after the 
founding of the Caliphate and Bagdad, about 763, A.D., 
we begin to learn of commercial transactions in opium, 
this traffic being between Arab merchant adventurers 
and peoples farther east. The traffic extended as far 
as China. 

In the course of trade to China the Islamic traders 
touched at the Malay Peninsula and East Indian Islands, 
and no doubt acquainted their peoples with a knowledge 
of the poppy and opium. 

By war as well as by trade the Arabs spread the poppy 
and opium over the Far East. It is a matter of common 
knowledge, the rapidity of the spread of Mohammedan 
power and influence over the Near and Far East after 
its first establishment in Arabia, early in the seventh 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 151 

century. That the use of opium as a stimulant or 
euphoric should have spread with it, appears to be due 
to the fact that alcohol was strictly forbidden to the ad- 
herents of the new religion. The great majority of the 
followers of the Prophet have fallen into the use, or 
countenance the use of opium, and even the hemp drugs. 

With the cry, " There is no God but God, and 
Mohammed is his Prophet," and we may add, " If you do 
not accept this dogma, a little opium will improve it," the 
Mohammedan Arabs, Persians, and Turks overran India. 
By the eleventh century they had the larger part of that 
continent under Islamic rule or influence. Under this 
rule the growth of the poppy and the manufacture of 
opium became widespread. 

But until Europeans began to flock to the Indian 
Ocean, we have little authentic information as to the 
exact extent of the production and trade in Indian opium. 
When we get to the end of the fifteenth and beginning of 
the sixteenth centuries, we are on more solid historic 
ground. From Portuguese writers and adventurers of 
those times, we learn that the use of opium as a stimulant 
had become an inveterate habit of large numbers of 
Persians and Indians. We become aware also, that there 
was a brisk export of the drug from India, Persia and 
even Egypt, the producing countries, to peoples farther 
east. 

After Vasco de Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope 
in 1497, Europeans sprang with avidity into the opium 
traffic which they found firmly established in the hands 
of Arabs, Turks, Persians and even Chinese. 

It is reported by Vespucchi that opium and many 

other drugs too numerous to detail were sent from India 

to Lisbon in Cabral's fleet. That was in 1501. " Arfium, 

for so they call opio thebaico," was taken in the capture 

, of, " eight Guzzurate ships." So we are informed by 



152 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Giovanni da Empoli in a letter of the year 151 1. Then 
we have the great Don Alfonso de Albuquerque writing 
the following remarkable passage to his King in a letter 
from Cananor. On December i^ 1513, he says: 

" I also send you a man of Aden, who knows how to 
work afyam (opium), and the manner of collecting it. 
If Your Highness would believe me, I would order 
poppies of the Agores to be sown in all the fields of 
Portugal and command afyam to be made, which is 
the best merchandise that obtains in these places, and 
by which much money is made; owing to the thrashing 
which we gave Aden, no Afyam has come to India, and 
where it once was worth 12 pardoes a faracolla, there is 
none to be had at 80. Afyam is nothing else, Senhor, 
but the milk of the poppy; from Cayro (sic), whence it 
used to come, none comes now from Aden ; therefore, 
Senhor, I would have you order them to be sown and cul- 
tivated, because a shipload would be used yearly in India, 
and the laborers would gain much also, and the people 
of India are lost without it, if they do not eat it ; and set 
this fact in order, for I do not write to Your Highness 
an insignificant thing." It would seem that " Senhor " 
did not follow this advice. For the poppy has not been 
cultivated in Portugal for opium. 

A keen observer of conditions on the coasts of East 
Africa and Malabar was Duarte Barbosa. In 1516 he 
found the trade established at Aden and on the Coro- 
mandel and Malabar coasts of the Deccan. Also at the 
port of Pegu and at Ava in Burma. At Malacca on 
the Straits of that name, he found the Chinese busy in 
the traffic between Malacca and Canton. 

These observers found that, according to native 
sources of information, the cultivation of the poppy and 
the manufacture of opium had been of many years' stand- 
ing in India, before Vasco de Gama anchored off Cali- 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM iS3 

cut, May 20, 1498. That is, during the time that had 
elapsed between the Mohammedan conquest of India and 
the appearance of Vasco de Gama, the poppy had been 
firmly planted in Indian soil. 

When the East India Company's servants began to 
know the continent of India, all this was confirmed. 
William Fitch, a merchant connected with the Company, 
tells us that in the Malwa region especially, the opium 
trade was an established one long before Western peoples 
found their way for trade or war to the Indian Ocean. 
Fitch, who landed at Surat, August 28, 1608, and crossed 
India to Agra, furnishes a good description of the 
Indian method of producing opium from the poppy 
head. 

The London East India Company was incorporated in 
1698, and immediately began to trade to all points be- 
tween the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magel- 
lan. From the records of that Company, which later 
did so much to develop the opium trade, we learn much 
on the subject. In a list prepared by one, John Cham- 
berlain, for the Company in 1699, opium is mentioned as 
one of the commodities of the East Indies imported by 
Holland and Portugal. 

From the first letter book of the Company, we find 
that the General Lieutenant and Captains of the fourth 
voyage (1606), had instruction to buy the best quality 
of opium. Such opium, however, was not considerable. 
It was for use in England, and not for exchange in coun- 
tries farther east than India. The Indo-Chinese opium 
trade of the Company, which grew to be the largest 
single factor in the opium problem, was of a later day, 
and will be referred to directly. 

It is clear from these records that there was a brisk 
commerce in opium between India, the chief source of 
supply, and Europe, the East Indian Islands and China. 



154 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Further that it was carried on by Arabs at first, but 
later by Portuguese, Dutch, French and even Danish 
traders. Later, when the Company entered into the 
traffic, it soon became a monopoly. 

But here we must retrace our steps for a moment. 
When India opened out to European travelers, merchant 
adventurers and the agents of the large European trad- 
ing companies, it was found that the Mogul Government 
had established a loose monopoly of the production and 
sale of opium wherever its authority ran in India. The 
exact period when this monopoly was founded is in 
doubt; but it seems to have been in Akbar's time (1556- 
1605). It is clear from the remarks of a certain Cap- 
tain Hamilton, that there was an opium emporium at 
Patna early in the eighteenth century. In a published 
account of some thirty years' travel and traffic in India, 
Hamilton observes, " Patana (Patna), is the next town 
frequented by Europeans, where the English and Dutch 
have factories for saltpetre and raw silk. It produces also 
so much opium that it serves all the countries in India 
with that commodity." Patna was one of the chief 
opium manufacturing centers of the Mogul opium 
monopoly. To-day, as under the Moguls, Patna, along 
with Benares, is the chief agency of the British Indian 
opium monopoly. 

Just what the early relations were between the East 
India Company and the Mogul monopoly which it found 
established in Bengal, it is difficult to state. But it was 
inevitable that the Company, with its vast commercial 
and political power, should have to decide either to con- 
tinue the monopoly as it was found in India, or to dis- 
countenance it. The Company's opportunity came when 
Clive won Plassey in 1757. For its success in that affair 
gave it control of Bengal and of the Mogul opium 
monopoly, centered at Patna. 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 155 

It will be seen that we are approaching critical ground, 
that we should see the fall, but are about to see the rise 
and establishment of the opium problem as it confronts 
us in the Far East even to this day. For we are now 
face to face with the path taken by an organized trading 
machine, somewhat conscienceless, where returns counted, 
and with the armed forces of England behind its com- 
mercial schemes. 

Before following this new turn in the rise of the 
opium problem, it will be well to look from the East 
India Company and India of 1757, and see what has hap- 
pened in China since its contact with Arabs and those 
European traders who leaped into the Indian Ocean on 
the heels of Vasco de Gama's voyage. 

It has been mentioned that we have clear evidence that 
the Arabs visited China during the Caliphat, but there 
is some evidence that they had traded at Canton a hun- 
dred years at least before Mohammed's mother's brother 
built himself a tomb in that city, and was buried there. 
The Chinese seem to have known the poppy and the 
medicinal value of its capsules from early times, but 
there is unquestionable evidence that their acquaintance 
with opium, or the extract of the capsule, was miade 
known to them by their Arab visitors. 

What we certainly know of the poppy in China is 
contained in the " Article on the Poppy," contained in the 
I22d book of the " Lexicon of the Vegetable Kingdom," 
which again is the fourth division of the " Category of 
Science and Inanimate Nature," the whole being the 
fourth category in the " Compendium of Literature and 
Illustrations, Ancient and Modern," drawn up by Im- 
perial Chinese authority, and published October 23, 
1726. 

In this " Article on the Poppy," we find that the plant 
was first mentioned under the name, ying-su, by those 



156 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

who wrote prior to 819 a.d., that is, during the T'ang 
dynasty (618-905 a.d.). 

From the T'ang dynasty onwards, there are many 
poetic and other references to the poppy plant, and of 
its value in medicine. About the year 983 a.d., it entered 
the Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and in the Materia Medica 
of the eleventh century, compiled by Su-sung and others, 
on the order of the Emperor Jen T'sung, it is stated: 
" The poppy is found everywhere. Many persons culti- 
vate it as an ornamental flower. . . . When the 
capsules have become dry and yellow, they may be 
plucked." The writer goes on to describe the uses of 
the capsules in medicine. 

The first mention in Chinese literature of the extract 
of poppy heads, that is, opium, is in the fifteenth century. 
A writer of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), who died 
sometime in the year 1488, says that opium is the product 
of the ying-su flower. The writer, Wang Hsi, relates 
that " Opium is produced in Arabia from a poppy with a 
red flower. . . . The capsule, while still fresh, is 
pricked for its juice." It will be observed that this 
author died ten years before Vasco de Gama rounded 
the Cape of Good Hope. 

During the first half of the Ming dynasty (1360- 
1644), frequent raids were made by the Japanese upon 
the Chinese coast. This led, in 1523, to an Edict which 
closed the ports of China to all foreigners. It has been 
supposed that this closure made opium as well as other 
foreign drugs, scarce in the Empire. As a consequence, 
we find contemporary, native writers giving precise di- 
rections for the manufacture of opium. Another con- 
sequence must have been an increased sowing of the 
poppy in China and a wider knowledge of the plant and 
its properties to the Chinese. 

Nevertheless, in spite of the fact that the Chinese 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 157 

knowledge of the poppy had grown from the poppy 
plant and its properties to opium, there is nothing in 
any authentic document to show that up to the end of 
the Ming dynasty, they regarded either the plant or 
opium as other than a medicine. 

When we get to the end of the Ming dynasty, a 
change occurs in the Chinese method and object, in the 
use of opium. We stumble rather than walk on the rise 
of the opium-smoking habit, the habit that is China's 
opium problem to-day. 

There is some obscurity in the history of the rise of 
this habit. Kaempfer, the Westphalian, had noted as 
early as 1639 that the Javanese combined opium with 
tobacco and smoked it. The rise of the opium-smoking 
habit in China seems to have followed the introduction 
of tobacco smoking to that Empire. The tobacco plant 
had been transplanted by the Spaniards to the Philippine 
Islands. From here it appears to have been introduced 
by way of Formosa to Amoy and its neighborhood, in 
the Province of Fukien. This was towards the end of 
the Ming dynasty (1620). 1628-44 were the years of 
the last Ming Emperor. During this reign the habit of 
tobacco smoking tended to spread throughout the eastern 
portion of the Empire. The result was a prohibitory 
Edict against it. But in vain; the habit could not be 
checked by law. 

The Manchus followed the Mings and in the year 
1641 an Edict was again published which prohibited the 
smoking of tobacco. 

The prohibitory Edicts issued by the last Ming and 
first Manchu seem to have been just as ineffectual against 
tobacco smoking as were the later Manchu Edicts against 
opium smoking. During the seventeenth century the 
spread of the tobacco habit was as rapid and as difficult 
to control by Edict as the spread of the opium-smoking 



158 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

habit in the nineteenth century. The prohibitory Edicts 
emanated from Emperors who it cannot be gainsaid were 
moved by a deep paternal interest in their people. The 
common sense of the better classes and the propriety of 
the Confucian mind were shocked by both practices. But 
Edicts and shocks to the Confucian mind were powerless 
on the people as a whole. As Edkins remarks: 
" Tobacco was a less evil than the Emperor and people 
supposed. Opium smoking was a far greater evil than 
they feared. . . . The habit of tobacco smoking be- 
came national and went on extending itself for a cen- 
tury, till the attention of the Government was drawn to 
opium smoking as a thing found in Formosa and at 
Amoy. It grew up in the same part of the country 
where tobacco smoking had been introduced." 

In 1729 the Chinese Government found itself face to 
face with a rapidly spreading and alarming vice. Native 
opium was being diverted from medicinal uses to pander 
to an evil. The opium poppy began to flourish all over 
China, while imports of the Indian drug began to move 
upward. Alarmed, in 1729, the Emperor issued an Edict 
prohibiting the sale of opium and the opening of opium 
divans. The penalties imposed on those who disobeyed 
were severe, the most important being on the sellers of 
the drug. In 1730 another Edict was aimed at the prac- 
tice amongst the Chinese colonists in Formosa. 

Since these Edicts were promulgated, it may be said 
in truth that the ruling authorities of China have stead- 
fastly regarded opium smoking as a crime. These two 
Edicts are the earliest legislation we know of on opium 
smoking, and they were necessitated by an evil practice 
which, growing, has in our day almost shackled the peo- 
ple of China. Unfortunately they had but little effect. The 
trade in Indian opium remained as before or grew. Two 
hundred chests of Indian opium were annually received 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 159 

at Canton, and by 1767, just before the East India Com- 
pany assumed the old Mogul monopoly, the Canton im- 
portation had risen to 1,000 chests. 

It should be clearly understood before we proceed 
that the increase in the importation of Indian opium at 
Canton was not the result of undue pressure by Western 
merchants or trading companies. The simple truth is 
that the Chinese had discovered a new and alluring vice, 
and, like most peoples, had pronated to it. The deep- 
seated ills attaching to the vice had not come home to 
the common people, and the history of this opium problem 
will show that it was only when the Chinese people as 
a whole began to suffer from the effects of the new vice 
that they lent their moral support to the restrictive Edicts 
of their rulers. 

During the growth of the opium cancer and even 
though Edicts had been directed against the sale of opium 
for smoking purposes, the drug as a medicine could still 
be imported into China on the payment of three taels a 
chest, duty. Though the sale of opium for smoking 
purposes was prohibited, there is no proof that it was 
refused at the customs as a medicinal drug. Edkins 
states that, " The minor portion only of the opium im- 
ported into China about the time of the conquest of 
Bengal by Clive, was devoted to smoking. The Super- 
intendents of Customs still continued to take the duty 
on opium as a drug. . . ." But that a contraband 
trade in the drug was coming into existence about 1782, 
that is, after the taking over of the Mogul opium 
monopoly by the East India Company, seems evident, al- 
though there is only indirect evidence that the importa- 
tion of the drug had been forbidden by the Chinese. 
This may be shown by a quotation from a letter of Mr. 
Thomas Fitzhugh written from China to a Mr. Gregory 
in London. 



i6o CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Mr. Fitzhugh writes : " The importation of opium to 
China is forbidden under very severe penalties ; the opium 
on seizure is burnt, the vessel in which it is brought to 
port is confiscated, and the Chinese in "whose possession 
it is found for sale is punishable with death. . . ." 

In spite of official ban there can be no doubt that by 
the last decade of the eighteenth century, what with 
home-grown opium and the contraband Indian article, 
the opium-smoking habit had spread widely in eastern 
and southern China. By 1799, the year in which the 
East India Company finally saddled itself with the old 
Mogul monopoly, the smoking habit was recognized as a 
menace to the Peking populace. 

This was too much for the Peking authorities. When 
the Capital of the Empire and the Metropolitan Province 
were menaced by the new vice, it was time for the Son 
of Heaven to cast what to him seemed a deadly bolt. 
That he did. The Emperor, Kiaking (i 798-1 821), 
issued an Edict forbidding the importation of opium to 
China. The Edict, as well as Mr. Fitzhugh's letter, 
shows that for some time previously opium had been ex- 
cluded from the commodities in which trade by barter 
was permitted. The drug had therefore, it would seem, 
been contraband before the Edict was promulgated. In 
the Edict opium was spoken of as " remarkable . . . 
for a quality of exciting and raising the spirits. The use 
of opium originally prevailed only among vagrants and 
disreputable persons . . . but has since extended it- 
self among the members and descendants of reputable 
families, students, and officers of Government. . . . 
When this habit becomes established by frequent repeti- 
tion, it gains an entire ascendant, and the consumer of 
opium is not only unable to forebear from its daily use, 
but, on passing the accustomed hour ... he 
. . . cannot refrain from tears or command himself 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM i6i 

in any degree. . . . The extraordinary expense of 
this article is likewise to be noticed . . . which the 
fortunes of the bulk of the community are unable to 
satisfy . . . and are therefore wholly dilapidated 
and wasted away." Then follow directions for the en- 
forcement of the Edict. The entire Edict is worth read- 
ing, and may conveniently be found in the " Journal of 
International Law." ^ 

We see that by the year 1799 the terrors that hung 
over China from the misuse of opium had been rec- 
ognized by her rulers, and the most respectable means, an 
Imperial Edict, had been issued against the further im- 
portation of the drug. Undoubtedly, the ever-enlarging 
Indian opium traffic was aimed at. It is time therefore 
to pass back to India and see what had been the cause 
of the issue of this Edict. We will find the East India 
Company deliberately assuming the monopoly of the pro- 
duction of Bengal opium and of spawning the drug over 
the fair Far East. 

We left the East India Company in possession of 
Bengal and the old Mogul opium monopoly, as the result 
of Clive's victory at Plassey, 1757. Without going into 
much detail it may be stated that, on the 23d day of 
November, 1773, Warren Hastings, who was then Gov- 
ernor General in India, together with his Council, after 
a full discussion of the question, deliberately voted to 
assume the old Mogul opium monopoly. In the resolu- 
tion passed there was not a word about the evils of the 
abuse of opium, an evil that, it will be shown directly, 
Hastings was fully aware of. 

Hastings was undoubtedly responsible for the fixing 
on the Far East of what had hitherto been an irrespon- 
sible trade. That he was cynically possessed in the affair 
may be best shown by the dicta which follow, dicta 
ijuly, 1909. 



i62 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

which have been the guiding policy of the British Indian 
administration up to quite recently. 

Dane has recorded that " Hastings urged that it was 
undesirable to increase the production of any article 
(opium in this instance) not necessary to life, and that 
opium was * not a necessary of life,' but a pernicious 
article of luxury which ought not to be permitted, but 
for the purpose of commerce only, and which the wisdom 
of Government should carefully restrain from internal 
consumption." 

Here in part, there is stated a wise moral principle, 
and in the whole a discrimination in ethics that is almost 
singular. A pernicious article of luxury should not be 
produced. Opium is such an article. In effect the Gov- 
ernment of India should carefully restrain the use of the 
drug to the Indian people. But export this pernicious 
article to other peoples, and so enhance the revenue of 
the East India Company. No harm in that. In pur- 
suance of this policy, Hastings, was responsible for the 
shipment, on account of the Company, of several cargoes 
of opium to China and the Straits Settlements. The 
Directors of the Company in London condemned the 
transactions. It was known to them that the Chinese 
Government had prohibited the sale of opium for smok- 
ing purposes, and they plainly told their representatives 
in India that it was beneath the dignity of the Company 
to venture into a clandestine traffic. The export of the 
drug to China in the ships of the Company was there- 
fore prohibited. 

They saw no objection, however, to official ventures 
in the drug to the Straits of Malacca. In regard to such 
ventures, the London directors thoughtfully remarked, 
" Whatever opium might be in demand by the Chinese, 
the quantity would readily find its way thither without 
the Company being exposed to the disgrace of being 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 163 

engaged in an illicit traffic." No hindrance was placed 
in the path of independent shippers who wished to em- 
bark in the carriage of the Company's opium to China. 
When it is noted that these shippers were licensed by 
the Company, and could only carry the Company's opium, 
we shall see that, altogether, the Company shielded the 
contraband opium traffic with its whole power. 

One cannot jump to the year 1799, which was as im- 
portant a year to the revenue derived by the Company 
from its opium monopoly as it was to China's opium 
problem, without recording some of the reasons which 
led Hastings and his successors to burden the Company 
with the old Mogul opium monopoly. In 1825, or there- 
abouts, the Chinese were accused by British apologists 
of the opium traffic, of wishing to prohibit the importa- 
tion of opium because it resulted in the export of silver 
from China, the balance of trade being against that 
country. As early as 1785, one of the forceful arguments 
urged by the Company's representatives in India, in favor 
of the opium monopoly, was that it would preserve the 
balance of trade to the Company. 

In 1785, under Sir John Macferson, Hastings' succes- 
sor, the principle was accepted that the proceeds of the 
opium monopoly should be applied at Canton to the 
benefit of the Chinese trade. 

The Governor .General in Council was commended by 
the Directors for putting the opium trade upon a benefi- 
cial footing to the Company, and for supplying the super- 
cargo of the Company at Canton with specie without 
draining the Indian Provinces. Later, July 29, 1789, 
Lord Cornwallis, the then Governor General, adduced 
three reasons why the opium monopoly should be re- 
tained by the Company. The third is as follows : " The 
opium now serves as a remittance to China to answer 
the bills drawn upon Canton for the provision of the in- 



i64 CPIINA AND THE FAR EAST 

vestment (i. e., the general Chinese trade). Were the 
trade (opium) to be laid open, it is probable that this 
reserve might in some measure fail, and occasion the 
exportation of large sums in silver from this country 
(India), already too much drained of its circulating 
specie." 

Under the guiding principles worked out by Hastings, 
Macferson and Cornwallis, and sanctioned by the Com- 
pany's directors in London, the opium monopoly was 
finally established in India by Bengal Regulation 6, of 
1799; that is the same year in which a humanitarian Em- 
peror of China, knowing of the growth and evil con- 
sequences of the contraband opium trade, and realizing 
the wreckage caused by the smoking of the drug, issued 
his famous Edict forbidding its entry to China. 

Thus it will be seen that the year 1799 was the crucial 
year of the opium problem. The Emperor of a great 
people had taken a wise step to preserve the morals of 
his people. A trading company had deliberately em- 
barked on the production of an " Article not necessary to 
life. ... A pernicious article of luxury which the 
wisdom of Government should carefully restrain." 

Neglecting Hastings' economic principle, and accept- 
ing his moral dictum, and along with this accepting the 
wisdom of the Chinese Emperor's Edict, it is almost non- 
sense to consider the pros and cons of the opium problem 
from 1799 onwards. The evils of opium were plainly 
recognized by both parties to the dispute, and the traffic 
ought to have been suppressed. That was the opinion of 
many wise Englishmen of that day. But as the pros and 
cons of the question, after 1799, led to war, the opening 
of China and to an enlargement and steadier fixation of 
the opium evil on the Far East, something more must 
necessarily be said. 

No good purpose will be served to detail the British- 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 165 

Chinese bickerings on opium, and the diplomatic questions 
that sprang from them, during the years from 1799 to 
the breaking out of the so-called Opium War in 1839. 
Those years have been analyzed in a most masterly way 
by Brinkley,- while nearly all later writers, as well as 
the trend of events for the solution of the opium problem, 
place the Chinese almost wholly in the right and the East 
India Company, and afterwards Great Britain, almost 
wholly in wrong. 

Suffice it to say that the higher Chinese authorities 
never wavered in their opposition to the spread of the 
opium evils and the contraband opium trade, although 
minor Chinese officials connived at it. Contraband 
traders bought freely of Indian opium at Calcutta and 
by hook or crook got it on shore, chiefly at Canton, and 
did not hesitate to introduce it too at other Chinese ports 
higher up the coast. The exportation from India to 
China grew enormously, from 1,000 chests in 1800 to 
18,000 chests in 1839. 

In the year 1839 the Chinese Emperor and his advisers 
determined to make an effective stand in the moral and 
economic interests of their people. To this end, one of 
the most remarkable characters in Chinese history was 
sent to Canton with special powers to stop the contraband 
trade in opium — Special High Commissioner Lin, to give 
him his full title. Mr. King, an American merchant 
at Canton, has given an impression of him : " From the 
whole drift of his conversation and inquiries during the 
interview, it seemed very evident that the sole object of 
the Commissioner was to do away with the traffic in 
opium, and to protect that which is legitimate and honor- 
able." 

It is a Chinese fashion to issue proclamations broad- 

2 In House of Commons Resolution, May, 1906. Journal of 
International Law, July, 1909. 



i66 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

cast. On his arrival at Canton, Lin proceeded to do so, 
intending that there should be no mistake as to his ob- 
ject. To the foreign merchants he said: "Why do 
you bring to our land the opium which in your land is 
not made use of, by its defrauding men of their property 
and causing injury to their lives? I find that with this 
thing you have seduced and deluded the people of China 
for tens of years past; and countless are the unjust 
hoards you have thus acquired. Such conduct arouses 
indignation in every human heart, and it is utterly in- 
excusable in the eye of Celestial reason." 

Lin not satisfied with appealing to the Canton mer- 
chants, and be it understood that there were Americans 
amongst them, and the Chinese people, composed an 
address, which he meant to have forwarded to Queen 
Victoria, then on the British throne. The following is 
an extract from it : " Your honorable nation, though 
beyond the wide ocean, acknowledges the same ways of 
Heaven, and has a like perception of the distinction be- 
tween benefit and injury. . . . But there is a tribe 
of depraved and barbarous people, who, having manu- 
factured opium for smoking, bring it hither for sale, 
and seduce and lead astray the simple folk, to the destruc- 
tion of their persons and the draining of their resources. 
Formerly the smokers thereof were few, but of late the 
practice has spread. , . . Hence those who deal in 
opium, or who inhale its fumes within this land, are all 
now to be subjected to severest punishment, and a per- 
petual interdict is to be placed on the practice so exten- 
sively prevailing, . . . Doubtless you, the Honorable 
Sovereign of that nation, have not commanded the manu- 
facture and sale of it. . . . We have heard that in 
your honorable nation the people are not permitted to 
inhale the drug. . . . But what is the prohibition of 
its use in comparison with the prohibition of its sale and 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 167 

manufacture, as a means of thoroughly purifying the 
source? . . . We would now then concert with your 
Honorable Sovereignty, means to bring to a perpetual 
end this opium, so hurtful to mankind, we in this land 
forbidding the use of it, and you in the nations under 
your dominion forbidding its manufacture. . . . 
Will not the result of this be the enjoyment by each of a 
felicitous condition of peace?" 

Strange that in the year 1907 Great Britain and China 
should enter into just such an agreement. For begin- 
ning with the year 1908, Great Britain undertook to cut 
down her production and exportation of Indian opium 
by one-tenth per annum, China agreeing to a pari passu 
ten per cent, per annum reduction in her own production 
and abuse of the drug. Lin must have turned in his 
tomb when this agreement was signed. 

To continue our narration : Complicated and angry 
relations soon developed between Commissioner Lin and 
Captain Elliott, who as Superintendent of Trade repre- 
sented England in China. The result was that Lin 
placed guards about the factories at Canton. Later, sus- 
pecting that Elliott was about to withdraw the whole 
foreign community, Lin " doubled the guards, and drew 
around the factories a cordon of troops and cruisers 
marshaled in menacing array." ^ In the face of this 
demonstration, foreign merchants of all nationalities, 
with few exceptions, signed a document pledging them- 
selves " Not to deal in opium or to attempt to introduce 
it into the Chinese Empire." * But Lin wanted more. 
He wanted all of the opium in the factories, and bonds 
placing the lives and properties of future smugglers at 
the disposal of the Chinese authorities. To the former 
demand Elliott acceded. He issued a circular calling 
upon the British merchants to " surrender to the service 
of Her Majestie's Government," all the opium in their 
3 Brinkley. .* Ibid. 



i68 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

possession, and he officially accepted " the most full and 
unreserved responsibility on account of the property thus 
handed over." Twenty thousand two hundred and 
eighty-three chests of opium were delivered to him. It 
was valued at between two to three millions. Lin 
promptly destroyed it. Undoubtedly it was one of the 
happiest days of his life. 

After the surrender of the opium, there were several 
defiant cases of smuggling. Later, in April, 1839, a 
riot occurred at Hong Kong in which a Chinese was 
killed ; yet later there was an exchange of shots between 
the parties and the war was precipitated. 

The British Government determined to support Cap- 
tain Elliott in carrying on war, but repudiated the 
financial responsibility he had assumed on the delivery 
of the opium to him by the foreign merchants. 

I need not describe the actual conflict that now took 
place; as the so-called Opium War it has its place in 
history. All that need be said about it here is that it 
was ended by the Treaty of Nanking. That Treaty was 
signed in 1842. When it came to be examined it was 
found that the great cause of the war was scarcely men- 
tioned. There was not a word in it that compelled the 
Chinese to receive Indian opium. No attempt was made 
by the Treaty to legalize the opium trade. However, 
Article IV. of the Treaty pledged the Chinese as follows : 
" The Emperor of China agrees to pay the sum of $6,- 
000,000 as the value of opium which was delivered up 
at Canton in the middle of March, 1839." 

As to whether the Treaty of Nanking ended a war 
that could be fairly called an Opium War, has been dis- 
cussed ad nauseam. This is certain : By compelling the 
Chinese Government to pay for the destroyed opium, 
after the agent of the British Government had assumed 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 169 

the financial responsibility, it fixed in the Chinese mind 
and in all defenders of the Chinese, that it was indeed 
an Opium War. 

There is a popular misconception that the Treaty of 
Nanking legalized the Indo-Chinese opium traffic. This 
is a mistake. The traffic was and remained a contraband 
traffic until the Treaty of Tientsin, 1858. But there is 
no doubt that Article IV. of the Nanking Treaty broke 
down any effective resistance which the Chinese authori- 
ties had brought against it, and the traffic, though still 
officially contraband, was openly and without hindrance 
pursued. Chinese officials connived at it. It grew apace, 
and from an importation of 18,000 chests in 1839 there 
was a growth to 50,000 chests in 1858, when the Arrow 
War, or second British war with China, broke out. The 
result of this war was the Tientsin Treaty of 1858 and 
the legalization of the opium traffic. For the Chinese 
Government, being wholly unable to command the con- 
traband trade, permitted opium to enter the country on 
the payment of 30 taels duty per picul. No doubt In- 
dian financiers smiled, for they saw the Indian opium 
revenue entrenched, it would seem, for all time. 

By the end of the last century, as the result of a two 
hundred years' struggle against the debasing habit of 
opium smoking, China found herself bound hand and 
foot by treaties ^ legalizing the traffic, and some sixty 
thousand piculs of foreign opium — chiefly Indian — pour- 
ing in on her, and an internal production of the drug 
that had grown to the enormous total of three hundred 
and twenty-five to thirty thousand piculs, all used for 
smoking purposes. So much for the effect of the Indian 

^ France, America, Russia and other powers accepted the 
British treaty of 1858 as the basis of their future relations with 
China. 



170 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

opium traffic on China. What has been the effect of that 
traffic on other Eastern peoples? 

Turning to India first: did the East India Company, 
and after the oblivion of that Company in 1834, the 
British Government, in accepting Hastings' advice that 
opium was for commerce only, accept his dictum that 
the wisdom of the Government should carefully restrain 
its use by the people in its immediate charge. Certainly 
not. An excise system was organized in British India, 
through which to this day the people of India, under 
British rule, are supplied with what opium they want. 
The main object of this system is to prevent the 
use of opium, except that produced by the Bengal opium 
monopoly. The British Royal Commission on the opium 
question practically pronounced in their 1895 Report 
that the use of the drug by the Indian people was, on the 
whole, beneficial. Until recently that idea has dominated 
the British Indian administration. 

Now turn to Burma. " Formerly there was a strong 
religious feeling among the Buddhists (the Burmans are 
Buddhists), against the use of opium, as there is in 
Japan, one of the cardinal commandments of Buddha 
being interpreted to forbid the use of opium as well as 
intoxicants. As Buddhism continues to lose its power, 
this feeling continues to diminish in intensity. On the 
other hand, wherever there is a strong Buddhist feeling, 
there is a religious and social denunciation of the opium 
vice. In such places a Buddhist who smokes opium is 
classed with thieves, liars and outcasts ; and the term 
' opium smoker ' is regarded by the Burmese as the 
epithet ' liar ' is by the Anglo-Saxon. Buddhism was 
once so strong a force as to keep the Burmese from the 
use of opium ; but this force became weakened by con- 
tact with English influence. As a people usually passes 
from one religion to another through a period of ethical 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 171 

disorganization, during which evil influences are Hkely to 
triumph, so the Burmese, passing from Buddhism to- 
wards Christianity, have reached the ethical condition in 
which opium, morphia and cocaine can do the greatest 
harm." 

So state the Opium Committee appointed in 1904 by 
the Philippine Government to study the opium problem 
as it then appeared in the Far East. British contact with 
Burma was the cause of the spread of the opium habit 
amongst that people, and this at the time when the moral 
force of Buddhism began to lose force. 

In British India the British found the opium habit 
established before their entry, and they have done little 
or nothing to check it. On the other hand, when they 
entered Burma they found the Burmese, on the whole, 
opposed to the habit. But it soon spread with direful 
consequences. Yet it is to the credit of Indian admin- 
istrators that as soon as the evil effect of the habit was 
observed on the Burmans, strenuous attempts were made 
to check the sale and use of the drug amongst them. 

In Ceylon, where before British influence there was 
little or no use of opium, there has been an enormous 
growth of the habit. It would be dangerous to state 
that the habit in this island was deliberately fostered in 
the interests of the revenue-producing opium monopoly 
of British India proper. In 1840 there was an importa- 
tion of the drug into Ceylon, amounting to 1,562 pounds. 
In 1900, 23,000 pounds. These figures tell only too truly 
of the rise of the opium habit amongst the Singalese. 

The Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States 
of the Malay Peninsula contain a large Chinese popula- 
tion. They have therefore been large fields for the ex- 
ploitation of Indian-produced opium. So also in Hong 
Kong. In this Island as well as in the Straits Settle- 
ments and Federated Malay States, the sale of opium is 



172 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

farmed to the highest responsible bidder, and all three 
administrations derive a large revenue from the sale of 
the farm. 

In the Philippine Islands it was the custom under 
Spanish rule to farm the sale of opium, and fully thirty 
per cent, of the Chinese population were addicted to the 
habit. It began to spread to the Filipinos themselves, 
threatening moral and economic disaster. The impor- 
tation of opium is, however, now forbidden except for 
medicinal purposes. 

In the United States, Canada and Australia^ fully 
thirty per cent, of the Chinese population were addicted 
to the habit of opium smoking, and it is beyond doubt 
that the habit has tended to spread to the undesirable 
elements of the white people of all of these countries. 

It should be remembered that this enormous use of 
opium, either internally as in India, or for smoking 
amongst the Chinese, depends primarily on the opium 
produced by the British Indian opium monopoly. A 
small part of it is lower grade Turkish and Persian 
opium. But the chief beneficiary is the British Indian 
Government through its opium monopoly. 

It should not be thought that this opium problem has 
grown without protest. Statesmen, humanitarians, Brit- 
ish chiefly, but those of other nations, have inveighed 
against it. Active movements have been set afoot to 
counteract it, and in 1894 it seemed that the Indian 
opium traffic was in for its quietus when the friends of 
the movement, both within and without the British Par- 
liament, succeeded in having a Royal Commission ap- 
pointed to study and report on the problem. But the 
sympathizers of this movement were doomed to disap- 
pointment, for the Royal Commission's Report nullified 

* In all these countries the importation and manufacture of 
smoking opium is now prohibited. 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 173 

the efforts that had been made to bring the Indian opium 
traffic to an end. Despondency reigned for ten years. 

Then the American Government in the Phihppines 
found itself confronted by the fact that opium smoking 
was on the increase in the Islands. Not only were the 
Chinese becoming demoralized, but the habit of opium 
smoking was spreading to the native Filipinos them- 
selves. A Committee appointed by the Islands Govern- 
ment studied the opium problem as it appeared in the 
Far East, and in 1905 reported against it. As a result 
restrictive measures were taken and finally a prohibitory 
law was made effective March, 1908, which forbade the 
importation of opium into the Philippines, except for 
medicinal purposes. 

There can be no doubt that Chinese statesmen, the 
foreign mission body in China, and those members of the 
Chinese community who took an interest in external 
affairs, were deeply interested in the effort of a great 
friendly Power to eradicate the opium evil from its re- 
cently acquired territory. When it was seen that, and 
we may use the words of Lord Morley : " The United 
States so regarded the evils of opium smoking that it 
would not even passively assent to its citizens engaging 
in the traffic," there was great joy in China. Her states- 
men took heart and before long a movement was on foot 
to suppress the opium evil in China. To this end an 
agreement was made with Great Britain that the export 
of opium from India to all countries should be reduced 
per annum by one-tenth of the then average import of 
the Indian drug into China. This was determined to be 
52,000 chests. Therefore, the total export from India, 
or 67,000 chests, was to be reduced by 5,200 chests a 
year. This agreement is for ten years, beginning Janu- 
ary I, 1908. China on her part agreed to reduce her in- 
ternal production of opium by one-tenth per annum, pari 



174 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

passu with the Indian reduction in production and ex- 
port. 

At this point the United States intervened by inviting 
the Powers with material interests in the Far East to 
join her in an International Opium Commission whose 
duty it should be to study the opium problem in all its 
aspects, and report as to the proper means for its solu- 
tion. This invitation the Powers accepted in a most 
gracious spirit, and on February i, 1909, delegations 
from America, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, 
Holland, Italy, Japan, Austro-Hungary, Persia, Portugal, 
Russia, and Siam met at Shanghai and entered upon their 
labors. 

The result was a thorough expose of the opium prob- 
lem, its condemnation, and certain unanimous Declara- 
tions as to the best means of solving it. Except for their 
moral effect these Declarations had no binding force. 
But it was recognized from the first day that the Com- 
mission met, that if a unanimous verdict against the 
opium evil could be achieved, it would be incumbent 
upon the American Government to take a step that 
would convert the Declarations of the Shanghai Com- 
mission into international law. Some dissatisfaction 
has been expressed because the Shanghai Commission 
did not finally settle the opium problem. But that Com- 
mission was from the first a Commission for study and 
report. It had no powers beyond these. Having little, 
or comparatively little, material interest in the opium 
question, and having convened the Commission, it became 
the duty of the American delegates, in their leadership, 
to work for harmony and unanimity. Should the Com- 
mission break up with a majority and minority report, 
the entire question would again be in the melting pot; 
the earnestness that undoubtedly lay behind Great Brit- 
ain's entry into the Ten Year z\greement with China 



THE OPIUM PROBLEM 175 

would have been chilled, and the reform movement in 
China would have received a fatal blow. Further, it 
would have been impossible for the United States to 
have retained the initiative in the international move- 
ment. 

Fortunately the Shanghai Commission moved har- 
moniously, and adjourned after adopting unanimous 
Declarations. This left the field clear for the American 
Government to call an International Conference with 
full-powers to conventionalize the Shanghai Declarations 
and such questions as grew out of them. This the 
American Government has done. It would be out of 
place to dilate on the proposed Conference at the present 
juncture. But there seems no reason to doubt that by 
the co-operation of those Powers with the United States, 
who have large financial as well as moral interests in the 
opium problem, it will be but a short time when that 
problem will be solved by international law. Too much 
praise cannot be bestowed on Great Britain, who after a 
hundred years' stubborn fight to retain her Indian opium 
revenue, is now showing her ability to dispense with that 
revenue, and her willingness to join with China in sup- 
pressing her opium evil. 



I 



THE CHINESE ARMY— ITS DEVELOPMENT 
AND PRESENT STRENGTH 

A COMBINATION of great events, coming in quick suc- 
cession, is responsible for the awakening of China. The 
events were the Boxer rebelhon, the capture of Pekin 
and the Manchurian War. As generally occurs at such 
times also, a man was ready in the person of Yuan Shih 
Kai, the Viceroy of Chihli, who possessed the necessary 
ability and force to give direction to events. 

From 1903 to 1906 he formed six divisions of troops, 
armed, equipped and disciplined them, brought them to- 
gether for grand maneuvers. From every point of view 
it was a great event to raise a modern army of 80,000 
men in three years in the land which was well known to 
be the most backward in the world in military matters. 

The influence of Yuan Shih Kai went into other hands 
soon after his first great performance. Four of his di- 
visions were taken from him and placed in the hands of 
a Board of War, but the trained men of his battalions 
have been scattered abroad to form the nucleus for others 
soon to be raised throughout the Empire. 

The first plans for an Imperial army, formed in 1907, 
were grand enough. The scheme was for thirty-six di- 
visions of troops, or two for each province of the Em- 
pire, to be formed in five years. The model was the 
armies of Germany and Japan. Each of the thirty-six 
divisions was to consist of two brigades ; each brigade of 
two regiments ; each regiment of three battalions ; mak- 
ing 432 battalions in all. The divisions were to be each 

177 



178 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

a small army in itself, numbering about 13,000 men, in- 
cluding, besides the two brigades of infantry, a regiment 
of cavalry, a regiment of artillery, a battalion of engi- 
neers, a battalion of transport troops and a company of 
sanitary (or hospital) troops. In time of peace this 
would give about 460,000 men. 

The term of service in the peace army was fixed at 
three years. Service was to be voluntary so long as the 
necessary contingents could be gotten in that way. In 
the course of time it was contemplated that the ordinary 
form of compulsory military service would be adopted. 

With a three-year term of enlistment it would be nec- 
essary to discharge one-third of the army each year and 
to replace them by new men. The new men would be 
taken from the great mass of youths who reach the age 
of twenty years during the year. In a country as large 
as China at the least calculation this annual class would 
be a million and a half men, and to keep up an army of 
460,000 it would only be necessary to use one in ten, or 
half the proportion used in Japan. When discharged the 
men would go to their homes, and three years would be 
passed in the first reserve, three years in the second re- 
serve, and three years in the National army, making 
twelve years of obligation of military service, for those 
who had been called to the colors. This would mean 
150,000 trained and drilled men added to the reserve 
each year. 

It was planned that the last of the new army was to be 
ready in 1912. In nine years more (in 1920) nine classes 
of trained reserves would be available. Thus a military 
force of a million and a half of men are counted on and 
provided for by the far-reaching schemes of the War 
Board of China. In time of war each of the peace di- 
visions of 13,000 would be raised with reserves to 
25,000, making 900,000 men, and a reserve di- 



THE CHINESE ARMY 179 

vision for each regular division would take up the 
balance of the instructed men. The head of the army 
is Tieh Liang, formerly a supporter of Yuan Shih Kai, 
but now a rival. He is without military training, but 
seems to have executive ability. 

In addition to this, plans for military schools were 
made, and machine shops and cartridge factories were 
ordered in each province. Three new arsenals for the 
manufacture of guns, rifles, equipment, and war material 
of every kind were to be established. A general staff of 
approved model, along the well-known lines of the Ger- 
man and Japanese, was ordered. 

With such plans every officer would in the course of 
time be a graduate of a national military academy, all 
war material would be manufactured within the country 
itself, and the higher duties of command would be in 
the hands of specially trained officers. 

Sir Robert Hart, the distinguished Englishman who 
has for many years been in charge of the customs serv- 
ice of the Empire, estimated that with a logical revenue 
system based on a land tax the revenues of the Empire 
could be raised to six hundred million dollars a year, 
affording ample funds for the support of the army, for 
building of a navy and leaving a large reserve for in- 
ternal improvements. So far his recommendations have 
not been approved. Here lies the greatest difficulty to suc- 
cess. The Empire practically consists of a number of 
sovereign states, each one governed by a Viceroy. The 
Viceroys are charged with the raising of revenue within 
their own jurisdictions and are practically independent 
of the general Government. As a result the aggregate 
revenue of the Empire seems to be absurdly small, and 
will remain so until some national system of finance is 
adopted, following the general plan of Sir Robert Hart, 
or some other plan suited to its needs and resources. 



i8o CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

The thirty-six divisions were by no means the limit of 
China's ambition. Still other schemes for an Imperial 
Guard Corps and for forty-five divisions have been ap- 
proved. As, however, the scheme of thirty-six divisions 
is still incomplete it will be well to ignore the others and 
to consider how far those plans have progressed up to 
the present. 

Two years have now passed out of the five years which 
were fixed as the time for the formation of the great Chi- 
nese army. The scheme itself might well have been be- 
yond the fondest dream of the greatest soldier who ever 
lived. The armies of Alexander, Caesar, Hannibal, and 
Napoleon were not made by the men who led them to 
victory. They are always the product of many years of 
national aspiration, or lust of power or hope of revenge. 
It is entirely too soon to judge of such a mighty task as 
the formation of a modern army in such a country as 
China, but we can tell what has been done. 

Of infantry about 220 battalions out of the 420 re- 
quired to make up the thirty-six divisions had been 
formed at the beginning of the present year. The forma- 
tion of the remaining 200 battalions was to be distrib- 
uted over the current year, 1909, and the next three years 
at an average rate of fifty battalions per year. 

The cavalry and artillery have not gone so far as the 
infantry, and less than half of the organizations have 
been formed. Special troops of engineers, telegraph, 
transport and medical services are somewhat further be- 
hind. 

On the whole the Chinese army now numbers 200,000 
men of all arms, of which probably 120,000 may be said 
to be well instructed, armed and equipped and able to 
give a good account of themselves in a war. 

As the system has only begun, there has not been time 
to accumulate large reserves of instructed men. This, as 



THE CHINESE ARMY i8i 

I said before, will not be done completely until 1920, even 
if the present plans are not delayed. At present only two 
of the divisions have reserves — two of Yuan's original 
divisions have discharged enough men to raise them from 
a peace to a war strength and to provide the additional 
reserve brigade, which is added in time of war to each 
division. 

To arm these masses China has been obliged to use 
weapons that are considered somewhat out of date. 
There are four types of rifles, mostly Mausers and Japa- 
nese Murata rifles of old pattern. They are, however, 
breech-loading, small-caliber weapons, not to be despised, 
even if they do not reach the ideal which some nations 
set. In fact they are the weapons which have been used 
in the great wars of most recent date. 

It is so also with the artillery where even a greater dif- 
ference of types is to be observed. This is, undoubtedly, 
a serious drawback, owing, of course, to the great diffi- 
culty of providing ammunition. 

The scheme is to furnish arms and artillery of the latest 
and of a uniform type to the entire army also by the close 
of 1912, when the army is complete. It is doubtful if 
this will be done, but certainly a steadily increasing num- 
ber of new weapons will be furnished. For the manu- 
facture of war material there now exist the great arse- 
nals at Hankow and Shanghai, which have a capacity of 
perhaps 30,000 rifles and 100 guns per year — but it is 
planned to build three additional arsenals, so far in the 
interior as to be safe from outside enterprises. At pres- 
ent they have to depend upon foreign workmen to a con- 
siderable extent. In addition each province has now al- 
ready formed or in process of formation repair shops 
and powder cartridge factories. 

For the education of officers for this great army many 
schools are necessary. In each province a cadet school 



i82 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

is established. There are four officers' schools for a 
more advanced course and a war college is to be estab- 
lished for the special instruction of a general staff. One 
of the most illuminating results of this military policy is 
the establishment of a special military school for the 
sons of the nobility and the royal family. 

For these schools there are a number of Japanese in- 
structors and some German, but the majority are Chi- 
nese who have studied in Japan and abroad. 

The number of students in these military schools is 
now seven thousand, a number that is to be gradually in- 
creased to almost double in 1912, when it is expected 
that the annual output will be 2,000 graduates, which 
will be the number needed to provide officers for the new 
army. 

For special services, such as engineers, telegraph, medi- 
cal corps and supply corps, there are in addition twenty- 
one schools. 

About seven hundred Chinese are now in the military 
schools of Japan, a number which is now to be reduced 
to fifty each year. There are about fifteen in Europe and 
two graduated at the Military Academy at West Point a 
year ago. 

The school is also one of the most important parts of 
the soldier's life. In addition to his four hours' drill per 
day, he is required to spend two hours at school. The 
schools themselves have broken away from Chinese 
precedent and tradition of thousands of years. Western 
learning is taught and Western methods are used. In- 
stead of the classics we find them studying writing, 
arithmetic, history, physiology, geography, and hygiene. 
A special importance is given to cultivating ideas of 
patriotism and honor. 

Each year a portion of the troops are concentrated for 
maneuvers. At first the maneuvers were marked by the 



i 



THE CHINESE ARMY 183 

presence of a number of Japanese advisers; they have 
now disappeared. 

When a new brigade is formed it is to be remembered 
that much money must be expended and much planning 
done. Large barracks and storehouses must be built 
for the thousands of men and the arms, clothing and 
equipment. Well-instructed officers and non-commis- 
sioned officers must be ready to proceed without delay 
to the instruction and discipline of the new levies. 

When a new division is formed, therefore, a number 
of officers taken from the previously raised commands 
are sent to the new district. They take charge of the 
necessary preliminary arrangements for enlisting, 
housing, clothing and equipping the men. They then 
form one or more school battalions as a nucleus. After a 
year of hard work the members of these corps are able 
to act as non-commissioned officers in the instruction of 
the balance of the brigade which is then formed. 

The Chinese troops in Manchuria have been borrowed 
from other provinces. The idea is to replace them by 
new organizations at home and to form permanent di- 
visions in Manchuria. One division is kept in Kirin 
province, where the Russians also have a dual posses- 
sion. Another division is in the vicinty of Mukden, 
where the Japanese have also possession. 

The Japanese have in Manchuria, including Port Ar- 
thur and the Kuantung peninsula, an entire division of 
troops and six companies of railway guards. This is 
under the provisions of the Portsmouth Treaty, permit- 
ting a guard of fifteen men for each kilometer of the rail- 
way. This dual occupation presents many anomalous 
conditions. 

So far the Japanese appear to confine themselves quite 
carefully to the railroad, and the Chinese troops seem 
to have considerable occupation outside in hunting the 



i84 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

bands of " hunghutse," or robbers, who have always in- 
fested the country. It is probably impossible that the 
arrangement will be satisfactory to either party. It can- 
not last many years longer, but the result is dfficult to 
foretell. 

Since the annihilation of her navy in the war with Ja- 
pan in 1894, China has done very little in the way of 
replacing it. Beyond a number of small ships which are 
employed mostly as river police there is no navy. 

Coincident with the raising of the army is the expan- 
sion of the railway system. Probably in a short time a 
railway will be completed from Hong Kong to Mukden, 
by way of Canton, Hankow, Peking, Tientsin. Such a 
system with the other roads now existing and the great 
river lines will bring fourteen out of the eighteen prov- 
inces within easy reach of one another, and will solidify 
the offensive or defensive power of the Empire. 

Upon the question of the efficiency of this new Chi- 
nese army widely different opinions prevail. A general 
line of pessimism runs through the accounts of most of 
the observers who have written about it. Some say that 
this army which has now been raised is no better than 
that which opposed the Japanese in 1894 and the allies 
in the advance on Peking in 1900 at the time of the Boxer 
outbreak. It is declared that the generals are incompe- 
tent, that the junior officers have no initiative, the troops 
no enthusiasm, and that it will be utterly impossible to pro- 
cure the money necessary to complete the arrangements 
now in view. 

There is good ground for all of this criticism. The 
army seems to lack a strong directing head. We do not 
see the influence of a Meckel or a Von der Goltz, which 
so strongly marked the beginnings of the Japanese and 
Turkish armies. The chief of the army is said to be a 
man without military training. The development of the 



THE CHINESE ARMY 185 

army since 1906 has fallen far short of what was accom- 
plished by Yuan Shih Kai before that. The absence of a 
national budget makes it necessary to turn over the sup- 
port of the divisions to the Viceroys of the provinces in 
which they are raised. As there are many provinces and 
many Viceroys, there is a great variety in methods and 
efficiency. 

On the other hand, the critics seem too eager to meas- 
ure the Chinese army by the high standard of Europe 
and Japan. They do not give sufficient credit to the fact 
that this national movement is in its infancy. They for- 
get that the creation of an army out of nothing has al- 
ways taken years of patient endeavor. 

I have pointed out briefly what has been accomplished 
and what is hoped for in the future. The army may not 
be armed with weapons of the best model, but it has 
several hundred thousand rifles and seven or eight hun- 
dred guns which are not to be despised and which have 
stood the test of great wars. We see the temples of 
Buddha turned into public schools in a nation which for 
centuries has lived only on tradition and which has stead- 
ily refused to believe that it was possible to learn any- 
thing new. In this introduction of Western thought and 
learning the army is perhaps the greatest factor. Thou- 
sands of young men are studying to be officers. The 
battalion schools of the army of 200,000 men are spend- 
ing two hours of study to six of drill. The military pro- 
fession is now honored where formerly it was despised ; 
it is realized that it can only be learned by building a 
new educational system upon the ruins of the old ; it is 
sought by the most favored youth of the land. The 
psychological condition of the masses seems to be chang- 
ing ; a feeling of patriotism and pride is taking the place 
of indifference. 

Whatever shortcomings we may find in this Chinese 



i86 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

army, we cannot forget that in many respects it is ideal. 
The Chinese soldier has few needs, is obedient and is a 
fatalist by nature. His daily life would be a trial and a 
hardship to almost any other soldier. He subsists on lit- 
tle, travels long distances, and seems to be immune to 
those common diseases which have destroyed many 
armies. Moreover, it is no small accomplishment to have 
worked out a military organization for an army suited 
to national needs and capable of indefinite expansion ; to 
accompany it with drill books and regulations which 
follow approved ideas. 

Conclusion 

In 1906, just before the present military scheme was 
adopted, Tieh Liang memorialized the Throne, and he 
quoted from some long- forgotten Chinese classic in 
these words : " Though all under Heaven is at peace, 
if the art of war be forgotten there is peril." It looks 
as if these words had now sunk deep into the heart of the 
whole nation. 



XI 

CONDITIONS, FAVORABLE AND OTHERWISE, 
IN CHINA'S DEVELOPMENT 

There has been a disposition on the part of writers 
and speakers in dealing with the Oriental to resort to 
what might be called literary demagogy. At the present 
time, with a keen interest in all that pertains to an awak- 
ening country, American audiences and readers demand 
an all-romance Chinaman, and even missionaries and 
consuls, normally a truthful and judicious folk, have 
yielded to the temptation. The result is a country burst- 
ing with good things and especially a people faultlessly 
dressed in silk gowns, who never fail to provide for their 
aged parents " in the village," a people who divide their 
time between telling the truth to their own hurt and 
making pretty lacquer boxes to give to friends, prefer- 
ably Americans, with no thought of a return gift next 
" Chinee New Year's." It is a useful antidote to this 
pleasing picture — though it reflects most creditably on 
our human nature — to recall the " hurry calls " from 
foreigners in the interior on the consul for a gunboat, 
when our fellows of the Middle Kingdom are restless. 
At such a time we realize that perfection does not 3'-et 
dwell among men ; and incidentally we discover that the 
Chinese have qualities unrevealed on the Chautauqua 
circuit and omitted in the latest " big sellers " of the book 
market. 

The Chinese are an admirable people and can teach us 
some things, notably the simple, non-competitive life, 
but we will not too soon surrender the institutions, at- 

187 



i88 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

tainments and viewpoints of Anglo-Saxon civilization. 
The Chinese Empire is old and its 400,000,000 live in 
comparative peace, but the question is. What have they 
done with their time? for mere age is little. They are 
credited with revealing gun-powder, the compass and 
other discoveries, but the nations of earth do not go to 
China to buy these things — they are there not very well 
made. Perhaps the modern test of a civilization would 
be what it does, not for individuals, but for the rank and 
file of its people ; and China does not do much for them. 
It has not brought out the powers of the individual. Not 
one in ten can read and write — the proportion is likely 
much smaller. The people are not well nourished ; great 
numbers live on the margin of famine. As one sees an 
army of coolies at work, he feels that among them are 
potential artists and painters, inventors, captains of in- 
dustry, intellectual and spiritual leaders — men who, if 
their powers were unlocked, might confer benefits, not 
only on their own people but on humanity ; but Confucian- 
ism and the other factors in Chinese civilization have not 
furnished the dynamics. Neither are their material re- 
sources developed ; China is almost exclusively an agri- 
cultural country, though it is rich in mines and has the 
raw material, the labor and the markets, that, energetically 
exploited, might dot the Empire with centers of manu- 
facture and production. It is significant of the wealth of 
the country that by agriculture alone is supported a 
population five times our own on an area equal to the 
United States east of the Rocky Mountains. 

It is unlikely American friends of China realize the 
poverty of the Chinese people. There is wealth in the 
coast ports ; and in the eighty or ninety walled towns of 
each of the eighteen provinces one sees in the stocks of 
goods in the stores and in the dress of the people some 
evidences of prosperity ; but the mass of the people have 



CHINA'S DEVELOPMENT 189 

only the bare necessities, and a walk from village to vil- 
lage reveals an unprogressiveness, a pinching poverty 
that depresses one — for though the needs of the Chinese 
are small, they yet find it difficult to earn enough to 
secure the essentials of life. Twenty cash are equal to 
a cent ; eleven of these cash will buy a bowl of rice. But 
often the two or three cents a day are hard to get. 

One does not realize the far-reaching usefulness of the 
" right of property " as a civilizing force until he lives in 
a country where property must hide its head. Where a 
man is protected in his invention, in cooperative industry, 
in getting rich — under such auspices men are free to do 
things industrial; capital gathers, resources are devel- 
oped ; all the blessings of material prosperity follow. But 
in a land where the man with a dollar is a marked man — 
where the resident in a handsome home is subject to a 
compulsive demand to build a bridge or loan to the magi- 
strate, or perhaps to a visit of bandits by night, with no 
efficient police to protect the citizen — the forward move- 
ment is checked. It is not worth while to amass wealth 
if one may not enjoy it or to establish a factory when it 
merely becomes a target for interference and exaction. 
The coast ports of China have many wealthy Chinese ; 
they load their women with diamonds and own many of 
Shanghai's two hundred and fifty automobiles. These 
Chinese are frank to say they live in Singapore, 
Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tientsin because of foreign aus- 
pices and protection. They would prefer to live on the 
soil of their birth. So the first need of China is some 
material prosperity. No man can do much until his 
stomach is full ; until he has a dollar in his pocket. But 
there can be no material prosperity until property is pro- 
tected — and this calls for more efficient government. I 
traveled a thousand miles in the interior, but saw only 
one or two smoke-stacks; no signs of cooperative, am- 



190 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

bitious industry; no manufacturing, little mining — agri- 
culture almost exclusively. One can think of scarcely a 
large producing concern in China that is not shared in 
by officials; and those on a pure citizen dividend basis 
are not unhampered as are the shoe factories, knitting 
mills and power plants of the United States, England and 
Germany. 

Until the wars of 1840 and i860 the Chinese really 
believed their country was the dominant kingdom of 
earth in point of arms; indeed this idea lingered, as 
shown by the purpose in the Boxer uprising, to expel 
once and for all the foreigners. At last, however, the 
Chinese know they are weak in comparison with the 
powers of the earth. But this is weakness only in the de- 
partment of armaments ; it would not occur to any Chi- 
nese to envy the civilization of the foreigner. The ad- 
vanced ones see and recommend to their fellows some of 
our inventions and institutions ; they lament the unpro- 
gressiveness of their Empire. But no Chinese apologizes 
for being Chinese. He is rich in native dignity, in race 
pride. It is in national pride that he is defective. He has 
local, family pride; sometimes villages war with each 
other over some clan insult until the fields are dotted 
with dead, slain with blunderbusses charged with nails 
and stones, or killed with mattocks and crude field im- 
plements. The Chinese is willing to die for a cause that 
appeals to him. But to organize and march to die for the 
Empire — even to get interested and excited — is not in 
him, at least it has not been until of late. Love of the 
Empire is not a concept that is real. Clan, neighborhood, 
dialect, to an extent religion — these are live things to 
him, but the average peasant has no national appreciation, 
enthusiasm or purpose. Indeed, the next province and its 
people may be as uncongenial to him as at times is the 
foreigner — may be more so. The hostility between re- 



CHINA'S DEVELOPMENT 191 

gions is often veteran and deep. When I took my per- 
sonal attendant on a trip up the China coast, I was cared 
for by American consuls, but my "boy," turned over to 
the kitchens, nearly starved; he did not speak their 
tongues, he was a barbarian among his own people. The 
country of China is so big, the people are so varied in 
language and traditions, and so unacquainted ; they have 
so little to do with the Imperial authorities, they feel so 
little gratitude to the Government, a gulf separating 
official and citizen, that there is but the beginning of a 
real patriotic love of the country as a whole. It is for this 
reason that it has been said a well-equipped invading 
force of 40,000 men could march from one end of the 
Empire to another. There is a modern army forming 
of Chinese, and their efficiency will increase with organ- 
ization and a developed patriotism; but for thrills over 
the Dragon flag or under the strains of the national air 
— (and there is a Chinese national air arranged in our 
own musical code) — for a willingness to sacrifice and 
lose, one must look to the student class, the Chinese ed- 
ucated in Japan or abroad, or in the colleges under for- 
eign auspices in China, where in the beauty and loftiness 
of youth they have learned of well-ordered states, of ef- 
ficiency and integrity of administration, of public moneys 
scrupulously administered, of health and fortune and fu- 
ture gladly laid on the altar of public service. Do not mis- 
understand me — unselfishness and self-sacrifice were at 
work in China before modern states emerged from bar- 
barism, but they operated in personal, family and local 
relationships. The concept of the nation as something 
majestic, embodying the hopes and fears of all the people, 
as something beautiful in its ends and perfect in its ef- 
ficiency and terrible in its splendid wrath — this concept 
is new to a people for whom Government has done so 
little that is constructive — a Government to which the 



192 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Chinese appeal only as a last resort, preferring the crude 
and inadequate administration by a handful of one's 
neighbors to the uncertainties of a visit to the yamen. 

Again, the conservatism of the people is only partly 
broken. We speak of " an awakening China," and rightly 
so. It is true that the development in the last decade is 
epochal. But Americans are not to think of an eager 
China, as Japan was and is eager to get the best things 
of modern life. That contingent in every Chinese com- 
munity which has come under the influence of outside 
impulsies, educational, commercial or religious, is ready 
and usually eager for betterments, and when leadership 
is once set up among any people, the mass follows ; but 
the bulk of China — the hundreds of millions away from 
the coast and treaty ports — are going on in much the 
same old way. Great numbers of them never saw a 
white man, and beyond an occasional hint of changes in 
the posted Edict or local manifesto do not know that 
anything is happening. 

The strange idea prevalent among many of our people 
that Japanese and Chinese civilization walk with equal 
step is absurd. Japan is not much different from our 
own country in the equipment of communities ; the peo- 
ple all speak the same language ; they have efficient 
schools, sanitation, Western trained medical practitioners, 
a town hall, a municipal budget, roads and comfortable 
inns in the most remote districts. But in China all is crude 
as yet; save in rehabilitated Peking and other bright 
spots governmental efficiency is feeble ; decentralization is 
the rule. The Chinese have worked out an admirable 
system of self-rule, but the criticism of it that it does not 
make for progress is undeniable. It leaves the people 
industrious and peaceable, but also poor, ignorant, un- 
ambitious. The absence of clear, conceded authority at 
Peking is another condition that makes regeneration 



CHINA'S DEVELOPMENT 193 

difficult. The outside world knows certain Manchus 
and Chinese of rank and rejoices in those who would 
face China on the new path, but back of them are of- 
ficials of greater authority, in some cases unfamiliar to 
the onlookers ; and these love the old order. There are 
many to consult in Peking. Japan had this advantage, 
that the Government was strong and authoritative; the 
nation was unified and schooled to follow implicitly un- 
der the daimio system. The regeneration of China can- 
not be automatic as was that of Japan, for the provinces 
and communities have been largely self-governing. It 
will be rapid enough to gladden those who love their fel- 
low men, but it must be slow. For one thing there are 
ten times as many people to be moved. 

The docile spirit of the Japanese is lacking in the 
Chinese. The former emptied themselves that they might 
learn, though in it was nothing of abjectness. It was 
rather a self -controlled pride for the time being. The 
Anglo-Saxon had the knowledge. We could teach the 
Japanese how to build bridges and refine sugar and heal 
the sick and establish courts and install banks, railroads 
and steamship lines, so the Japanese took all we offered 
with eagerness until they attained a proficiency much 
like our own. On a recent walk in Japan my days were 
made a burden by the passion of my Japanese compan- 
ion to learn English ; he would not let me alone. This 
eagerness characterized the whole nation from throne 
to ricksha. It is duplicated in China only in spots, and 
then often in the form rather than in the substance. A 
few months' study in Japan is regarded as sufficient to 
equip a Chinese teacher in Western learning. Foreign- 
ers were imported to build railroads ; when the latter 
proved profitable, the Chinese assumed they could do 
the work, and there are some faulty roadbeds to show 
for their premature action. This unwillingness to put 



194 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

themselves in the attitude of learners is likely a reflection 
of the traditional conceit of the people. 

I have spoken with frankness of the conditions that 
block progress in China. Let us touch briefly on some of 
the facts and conditions that suggest what a good me- 
dium for improvement this remarkable people constitute. 
In the first place there is nothing decadent about the Chi- 
nese, absolutely nothing. There are countries across the 
Atlantic that depress one, for decay and degeneracy are 
obvious, but the Chinese are full of power, of capacity. 
They give the impression, whether official, merchant, 
student or coolie, of a people that could do anything — 
not merely industrially, but intellectually. It has been 
proved that one may take children from the streets, from 
the boat population, from the dirty and diseased villages, 
and with education and sympathy make men of power. 
They are physically strong, virile, forceful. As four 
chair-bearers, perspiring, panting, yet exulting in their 
humble task — with no vision of higher employment — 
as they bear their white burden home from the club 
luxuriously asleep, up steep inclines at better than four 
miles an hour, one has an uncomfortable feeling that all 
their labor may mean storage of power against some day 
when the law of compensation shall reverse conditions. 
The Chinese are happily free from caste ; they are the 
most democratic of people. The millionaire contractor 
and his retainers may eat from the same rice bowl and 
the humblest worker in the street may ask his way from 
the magnate. It is only in officialdom that barriers are 
put up. The Chinese are a responsive people ; their hu- 
mor is more marked than is that of the Japanese. The 
American has an advantage in dealing with the Chi- 
nese by reason of the former's hearty ways; the two 
peoples understand each other. While learning is not as 
common as our home people infer, to be wise is the thing 



CHINA'S DEVELOPMENT . 195 

desired by the Chinese, and the scholar is the envied one 
and honored by all classes. The only aristocracy in China 
is that of learning, and the poorest may enter the door. 
Industry is so universal a trait that only the opium sot is 
lazy, and he is despised ; and contact with the foreigner 
explains insolence when it rarely occurs. The Chinese 
are free from alcohol poisoning. It makes one thought- 
ful to see coolies carry burdens of from one hundred to 
three hundred pounds hour after hour with no thought 
of more than weak tea to stimulate them ; and when a 
crowd of natives follows a drunken foreign sailor sway- 
ing to and fro in his ricksha, it would be less embarras- 
sing for us if they would laugh; but their faces rather 
betray marvel and inquiry. The Chinese are not a vin- 
dictive people, but friendly. Their religions sit easily 
on them, so there are no barriers to enlightenment on 
that score. In normal times you may stand up in any 
city and have your say; they do not fear the undermin- 
ing of cherished beliefs. It is a land of free speech ex- 
cept as the Government may have a local issue to deal 
with. The Chinese use reason instead of violence in the 
main; they meet over a feast to adjust differences, and 
there are professional peace-makers instead of lawyers. 
The study of modern topics in the schools under the 
Edict of 1905 in place of an exclusively classical curric- 
ulum, and the introduction of railways — these, with the 
leaven of Christian missions, constitute the major definite 
forces for a regenerated China. One can point out a 
variety of needs : I have spoken of the necessity of pro- 
tection of property and of the growth of a true patriot- 
ism. One might add to the list, and say an incorruptible 
judiciary. But how shall a country improve her judges 
by a proclamation? A judiciary that commands the re- 
spect of all the people is one of the finest and one of the 
last fruits of perfected civilization. There cannot be a 



196 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

purer judiciary in China until there is a better China- 
man. However, it is cheering to reflect that twenty 
years ago foreigners in Japan scoffed at the proposal to 
entrust their lives and property to the courts of Japan, 
yet this has come about with only occasional complaints. 
It must be a longer time before Chinese ideas can be 
conformed to our views of disinterested justice and to 
Western legal principles ; yet if China will throw a gen- 
eral enthusiasm into a movement for regeneration in place 
of the present partial trend, one may well hesitate to 
place limits on the achievements of such a people. 



XII 

♦THE CHINESE STUDENT IN AMERICA 

We hear much in these days of the " awakening of 
China." The phrase means, as I understand it, no more 
than this : A growing and spreading recognition by the 
Chinese of the fact that they must learn and adopt, to a 
much greater extent than hitherto, the ways and methods 
of modern civiHzation, must acquaint themselves with the 
progress and continuous advance made by thinkers, stu- 
dents and inventors of the Western World, in the fields 
of political and social economy, practical science and 
the industrial arts ; and must learn to apply the knowl- 
edge thus acquired to the reforming and strengthen- 
ing of their own Government, the improvement of 
the material welfare of their people and the develop- 
ment of their country's resources. Not all the advocates 
in China of the adoption of the ways of modern civiliz- 
ation are such from a conviction of the intrinsic superi- 
ority of the new ways over the old : many there are who 
would, if they could, keep their country in its ancient and 
traditional isolation, or rather in the self-centered ex- 
clusiveness of a nation to which intercourse with the un- 
important corners of the earth lying outside its bound- 
aries, is neither necessary nor desirable ; and to which its 
own ways and behefs are all sufficient, and better than 
anything which the outside world can give. There are 
many, I say, who honestly believe that their country was 
better off, and would continue to be better off, without the 
foreigner, but who yet advocate the acquirement of 
Western knowledge and the adoption of Western meth- 

197 



198 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

ods, because they see that since the foreigner cannot be 
got rid of; since intercourse with the outside world and 
the residence of foreigners in China are inevitable ; the 
only way for China to hold her own against the intruder ; 
to maintain the integrity of her Empire and the un- 
hampered exercise of sovereign rights by her Govern- 
ment, is by acquainting herself with the principles and 
methods which are the source of the foreigner's supe- 
rior strength — by stealing his thunder and turning 
against him his own weapons. These would fain have 
China left alone in the peaceful enjoyment of her old 
ways ; but since that cannot be, they advocate the learn- 
ing and adoption of the foreigner's ways in order that 
China may be able to hold her own in the inevitable 
intercourse and competition with him. 

There is another party which favors the adoption by 
China of Western methods from a conviction of the su- 
periority of these methods, and of China's need of them 
for the actual good they will bring to the Government 
and the people. They believe in the ways of modern 
civilization and in the benefits which follow free inter- 
course with other countries. They would not revert to 
the old aloofness, but would have China take her place 
in the councils of the nations, on even terms with the 
countries of the West. 

Which of these two kinds of advocates of modern 
progess in China are the more numerous I am not pre- 
pared to say. It is enough to say here that both wings of 
the Progressives, if we may call them so, are rapidly 
increasing in numbers, and that they are the dominating 
factor in the existing Government. However different 
the underlying motives of the members of the two wings 
may be, they are united in their advocacy of the learning 
and adoption of the ways of modern civilization; and, to 
a great extent, in their ideas as to the steps to be taken 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 199 

and the means to be employed to accomplish this end. On 
one point in particular there is unanimity of opinion be- 
tween the two factions of the Progressives, that is in the 
conviction that the Chinese official of the present day 
needs an equipment for his position quite different from 
that based on the standard set by an examination in 
knowledge of the Chinese classics. As a result of this 
conviction, we have seen the old form of examination for 
public office quietly, though suddenly, superseded by a 
test which requires of the candidates some knowledge of 
what has been done, and discovered, and accomplished, 
and what is now going on, in the larger world. This im- 
portant change in the nature of the examinations for the 
civil service naturally led to an immediate change in the 
methods and curriculum of preparatory schools ; and to 
the establishment of schools of a new kind as fast as 
teachers, with even a smattering of Western knowledge, 
could be found to instruct the Chinese youth in the sub- 
jects a knowledge of which is required by the new stand- 
ard of examination. The few good schools already in 
existence, whether established by the Government, by 
private individuals, or under the auspices of the foreign 
missionary societies, were eagerly sought by ambitious 
pupils, and soon proved inadequate to meet the demands. 
The necessity for more schools, and more and better 
teachers, under purely Chinese management and control, 
became everywhere apparent, and it was the provision of 
teachers for such schools, as well as the equipment of 
selected young men for positions of usefulness in various 
departments of the Government during the early stages 
of the introduction of changes, reforms and improve- 
ments, that led so naturally and logically to the policy 
of sending students to Western countries to study under 
the best teachers, the principles and products of Western 
civilization. Many of the students thus sent abroad have 



200 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

been sent at the expense of one or other of the Provincial 
Governments ; while others have been sent, and are sup- 
ported by parents or relatives, or have come at their own 
expense, England, France and Germany have been the 
chosen destinations of many of these students; but a 
greater number have come to America to seek education ; 
and this number promises soon to be very substantially in- 
creased by the sending hither by the Imperial Govern- 
ment of one hundred students every year for the next 
four years, and a minimum of fifty students each year 
thereafter up to the year 1940 — the students thus sent to 
be supported out of the portion of the Boxer indemnity 
returned annually by the United States Government to 
China. 

There are now in the United States, east of the 
Missouri River, about two hundred and seventy-five 
Chinese students (including with these twenty women), 
while on the Pacific Coast, in universities and col- 
leges, there are about one hundred and twenty more. 
Those in the Eastern States have, in almost every 
case, come to America especially for study; while 
of those on the Pacific Coast many are the chil- 
dren of long-time residents in this country. The 
two hundred and seventy-five students in the Eastern 
States are distributed amongst sixty-two universities, 
colleges and schools, some of which, however, have 
only one or two representatives. There were last year 
thirty-three Chinese students at Harvard, thirty-one at 
Cornell, thirty-one at the University of Pennsylvania, 
twenty-three at Yale, twenty at Columbia, twelve at the 
University of Illinois, and seven each at the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College and the University of Chicago. Some 
are taking courses in government and political science, 
others in chemistry, metallurgy, engineering, law. 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 201 

medicine, agriculture and finance. With very few ex- 
ceptions they have taken creditable standing in their 
classes; and not a few have distinguished themselves in 
competition with their American fellow students, in spite 
of the handicap of having to work in a language not their 
own. One student received his degree at Harvard 
magna cum laude, and three students attained to member- 
ship in the Phi Beta Kappa at different universities dur- 
ing the past year. There is no lack of ability and ambition 
on the part of the students ; and there can be no doubt 
that China is going to get an ample return for the ex- 
penditure incurred in maintaining these young men here ; 
but the return will be greater or less, according to the 
wisdom and foresight exercised in choosing subjects and 
courses of study, and to the degree in which opportuni- 
ties for close observation outside the academic curriculum 
are availed of by the students. 

During a long residence in China in the service of the 
Chinese Government, I have had some opportunity to 
observe, and to form opinions, as to what are the most 
pressing wants and defects in China, and how far study 
and observation in America, and in European countries, 
can give students the equipment they need to enable them 
to go back to their own country and render efficient aid in 
supplying those wants and remedying those defects. May 
I be allowed, then, to set forth what, in my opinion, are 
some of the principal objects to be kept in view by the 
Chinese students in this country — the kinds of good work 
for which they ought to try to fit themselves ? 

The introduction of reforms in administration and of 
improved methods furthering the material, moral and in- 
tellectual welfare of the Chinese people cannot be ac- 
complished without a heavy expenditure of money. The 
provision of funds is a necessary antecedent of, and 
therefore underlies, the whole programme of improve- 



202 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

ment. I do not hesitate, therefore, to place first in im- 
portance amongst China's needs — equitable methods of 
taxation, which shall be as easy and convenient of appli- 
cation as possible, and productive of an adequate reve- 
nue — the collection of which revenue must be under- 
taken by an honest, efficient and economical machinery. 
The difficulty of fixing upon methods of taxation is not 
so great as that of replacing by a properly constituted 
and administered revenue service, the over-staffed and 
under-paid tax bureau now so generally existing. A staff 
far beyond the reasonable requirements of the work to 
be done is gathered around each office. The official at the 
head of the office has perhaps many needy relatives and 
dependents to whom he gives a " chance " by appointing 
them to subordinate positions with very small salaries, 
or enrolling them amongst the runners and hangers-on 
with no regular pay at all, but with an opportunity to 
make a meager living by irregular exactions, made possi- 
ble by their power to delay and obstruct the business of 
those who have dealings with the office. 

The principle of fixed fees for definite services, or 
fixed duties on definite varieties and quantities of mer- 
chandise, is the only principle on which business can be 
carried on with security and satisfaction. But unless 
this principle is joined to the principle of fixed and ade- 
quate salaries to Government servants, and a business- 
like adjustment of the size of the staff to the amount of 
business to be done, the former principle cannot, in prac- 
tice, be adhered to. If the staff were fixed at the proper 
strength and its members paid fair salaries, there would 
be no excuse for, and need be no toleration of irregular 
exactions ; but when from highest to lowest, the employes 
are either very inadequately paid, or not paid at all, re- 
sort is naturally had to irregular exactions for private 
benefit, or to bargains and compromises through which 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 203 

some favor is shown to merchants, or other persons con- 
cerned in the matter of classification of goods, weights 
and measurement, or rates of duty or taxes, whereby the 
merchant saves in the payment of his legitimate dues 
about as much as he gives in fees to employes; so that 
the Government treasury is the only loser, and the of- 
ficial in charge, with his stafif and his hungry horde of 
hangers-on, is the only one benefited. Such a system 
of " squeeze " being countenanced, and excused by the 
apparent necessity arising from no regular pay to the 
staff, so long as it does not bear too heavily on the tax- 
payers there is practically no limit to the extent to which 
it may be carried, — unless the Government receipts fall 
off to such an extent as to cause the higher officials to 
take strenuous action and resort to investigation and 
wholesale dismissals, when things become better for a 
time — but only to revert, by degrees, to the same state. 
But with fixed and adequate pay, and a staff just large 
enough for the work to be done, there would be an im- 
mediate end of this great evil ; for the Chinese people 
are not more dishonest or grasping than other peoples. 
They are content with a modest income which will en- 
able them to live in moderate comfort, and are willing 
to do a full day's work for their pay, when properly paid. 
In an adequate and properly paid staff each member 
would do his own work; there would be no place for 
supernumeraries and hangers-on, and these would not be 
tolerated by the regular staff. So, as there would be no 
excuse for irregular fees and exactions, there would be 
no toleration of bargains and compromises with tax- 
payers, to the loss of the Government revenue. The im- 
mediate dismissal and further punishment of employes 
guilty of such irregularities would soon put a stop to 
them. 

This reform I place first amongst the needs of China. 



204 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

We trust that every student who comes to this country, 
will, on his return to his native land, do his best to help 
bring this about; and let his experiences and observa- 
tions in this country — whether they be of models to be 
copied or of bad examples to be shunned in this connec- 
tion — ^be fully utilized in his efforts to this end. 

Next in importance to the reform of the civil service 
I am inclined to place a refonn of the c^Lrrency and fi- 
nance. The existing confusion in this respect is the cause 
of immense loss not only to the Government but to 
traders, merchants and organized industries of all kinds. 
With a different unit of value in every considerable city, 
and sometimes several such units in use in the same 
place, not only is there more or less uncertainty as to the 
amounts of debits and credits, but the laborious and vex- 
atious calculations of exchange necessitate the employ- 
ment of a vast number of expert accountants and clerks, 
consume an immense amount of time, and seriously 
hamper trade. So, too, the clumsy method of settling 
debts by weighing out silver ingots of various standards 
of fineness, — which, for lack of a trustworthy and uni- 
versally acceptable guarantor, have to be assayed for 
quality as well as weighed for quantity, — wastes time and 
labor, causes immense expense, and leads to vexatious 
disputes — so much so as to be a recognized obstruction 
in commercial dealings, as well as a source of serious 
loss to the Government revenue. All these evils could 
be done away with by the adoption of a national unit of 
value and a national coinage, to be used throughout the 
Empire to the exclusion of all others. Whether the unit 
of value selected should be the tael or the dollar is a mat- 
ter of less importance than that there should be one fixed 
standard for the whole Empire, and that the Imperial 
Government alone should mint the standard coins and be 
responsible for their weight and fineness. China is al- 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 205 

most the last of the nations of the world to stick to a 
silver standard ; and having such extensive and ever- 
growing commercial transactions with gold standard 
countries she is feeling more and more, all the time, the 
drawbacks and inconveniences arising from an adherence 
to the silver standard. The fluctuations in the gold value 
of silver, often sudden and great, and seldom foreseeable, 
introduce a great speculative element into trade with for- 
eign countries. The importer cannot tell what will be 
the silver equivalent, on the arrival of his goods, of the 
gold price at which he has bought them — so that in a 
competitive market, where it is important to quote as low 
a price as possible to his purchasers, he may find a pro- 
spective profit turned into a loss by a fall in exchange 
after he has fixed his price to the purchaser. This un- 
certainty must curtail transactions and restrict trade. 
Moreover, the Government, in making foreign loans, 
must always agree to repay a fixed amount in gold; and 
the great fall in silver which has taken place in the past 
few years, and may still take place, results in the pay- 
ment of vastly larger amounts in silver, both in principal 
and interest, than were originally calculated upon. 

It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that China 
should reform her currency and finance, by establishing a 
fixed unit of value, based on a gold standard, and by the 
Government issue of standard coins representing con- 
venient fractions or multiples of that unit which should 
become the only legal tender throughout the Empire. 

The third great need of China is a separate judiciary 
system, with definite and uniform laws and established 
principles of interpretation; with courts of justice ac- 
cessible equally to all, presided over by trained judges, 
able and impartial. This is an absolutely essential ante- 
cedent of the abolition of extra territoriality in China. 
Under existing conditions the hearing and decision of 



2o6 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

cases, both civil and criminal, is only a part of the mani- 
fold duties of an administrative official, who brings to this 
part of his work, in most cases, no special training, no 
thorough knowledge of laws and precedents ; and whose 
court is generally so hedged about with officious under- 
lings and greedy clerks, that the poor man has little 
chance of getting his case properly brought before it, or 
fairly decided. It is greatly to the credit of the honest 
magistrate in China that, in spite of the drawbacks un- 
der which he works, he so often decides cases, when 
properly brought before him, according to their merits, 
by the exercise of common sense and keen insight — un- 
hampered, as well as unaided, by fixed and definite laws 
and established precedents. But such righteous decisions 
depend too much upon the character and personality of 
the judge, and cannot be counted upon with such reason- 
able certainty as could a just decision in a court, pre- 
sided over by trained and experienced Judges, whose 
reasoning must flow in a channel bounded by certain fixed 
and well-known laws and established principles of inter- 
pretation. It is unnecessary to say that the Judges and 
lesser officers of the courts must be carefully selected and 
above suspicion ; that access to the courts should be ac- 
companied by the least formalities possible ; and that 
such formalities and observances as are absolutely nec- 
essary should be published for the information of all. 
The creation of such separate judicial system, the estab- 
lishment of courts, the training of judges and other law 
officers, the making of rules of legal procedure, the mak- 
ing, revision and codification of laws of general applica- 
bility — all these offer a vast field for useful work, for 
which many of the students here are trying to fit them- 
selves. 

The next field for effort to which I shall refer is that 
of public sanitary works and municipal improvements. 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 207 

Already much has been done in this regard in some of the 
great cities of China — notably in Peking and Tientsin, 
where the present condition of things shows a startling 
contrast to that which prevailed ten years ago. But apart 
from these few cities the want of care for the health, 
safety and convenience of the public is as complete as it 
ever was. Drainage, scavenging, street cleaning, light- 
ing, policing, fire prevention, a pure and adequate water 
supply, public parks and recreation grounds — these are 
either primitive and inadequate or altogether wanting in 
most of the towns and cities of China. All of the stu- 
dents, whatever their special line of study may be, can 
learn by observation something of these — and, profit- 
ing by our mistakes as well as by our successes, will be 
able to describe to their countrymen in China some de- 
tails of the progress which has been made in American 
and European towns in public sanitary and kindred 
works, and to create a sentiment for such works in China 
— while some of the students are giving special study to 
the problems of municipal administration, sanitation and 
public utilities, so that they may have the knowledge and 
ability to take charge themselves of the carrying out of 
such improvements as may be decided upon. 

In the matter of transportation facilities, great strides 
have already been made in China. The rapid increase in 
the railway mileage during the past few years, and the 
number of railways now building, or projected and sanc- 
tioned, show that progress, in this direction at least, is 
fast overcoming the opposition of the more conservative 
element of the population. The traveler who has once 
had the experience of making in twenty-four hours, and 
with comparative comfort, the journey which in other 
days has taken a month to accomplish — a month of weari- 
ness and hardship, and at an expense twenty- fold greater 
than that of the railway — will never again be hostile to 



2o8 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the fire-wheel wagon ; and his experience will influence 
the opinion of his friends and neighbors who have not 
yet tried it. We may say that already, except amongst 
people making their living by the old methods of trans- 
portation, hostility to railways has practically disap- 
peared; while the advantages of steamer transportation 
have been fully appreciated for a generation past. And 
even those who make their living as carters, boatmen, 
packmen and porters are finding out that, though their 
field of operation has been curtailed and they are now 
coming to be employed more in transporting goods to and 
fro between the shipping points on the railways and the 
country not yet reached by them, the great increase both 
in passenger and freight traffic which has followed the 
introduction of railways has given the old-style trans- 
portation equipment as much employment in its smaller 
field as it formerly had in the larger. But railways and 
steamers are not enough. For the feeding of these good 
roads should be constructed and good bridges built, mak- 
ing possible the employment of larger and more economi- 
cal carts; while the streams and canals should be deep- 
ened and improved to facilitate and expedite boat traffic. 
I have said that hostility to railways has practically 
disappeared in China; but, while this is true, it is also 
true that there is a strong, in some places a violent, senti- 
ment against the employment of foreigners, or rather 
the control of foreigners in railway construction. The 
aim of the ChinesCj which has lately become increasingly 
manifest, to develop their country's resources and to 
construct and operate its railways and transportation 
lines as far as possible by the work of their own people 
is one which must meet with sympathetic recognition, so 
long as it does not lead to a too hasty cutting adrift from 
foreign aid in the establishment and conduct of indus- 
tries and undertakings for which China is still a new 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 209 

field. In this connection, the preparation of Chinese by 
sound technical education in foreign countries, to fill, 
when thoroughly fitted, the more responsible positions in 
the railways, mines and other undertakings, is a work of 
the utmost importance. When a sufficient number of 
Chinese are thoroughly fitted for the work, the aid of the 
foreign experts need no longer be called in; but until 
that time comes we must be of opinion that the agitation 
against the participation of foreigners in Chinese indus- 
trial enterprises is premature and must have bad results. 
Two railways have been built in China by Chinese engi- 
neers unaided. Amongst the students now in America 
we hope that there are a goodly number who will re- 
turn to China in a few years, thoroughly competent en- 
gineers, capable of carrying out every detail of railway 
construction and maintenance ; and others well versed in 
the details of administering and operating railways, who 
can take complete charge of that branch of the service. 
But prudence and modesty must modify the ambition of 
the new-fledged engineers ; and a too hasty discarding of 
foreign expert assistance may lead to disaster. 

Closely bound up with the improvement of transporta- 
tion facilities is the general introduction of the best mod- 
ern methods in the development of China's mineral 
resources; for it would be folly to open mines with- 
out providing easy and economical means of transport- 
ing the mineral products to market. The extent of China's 
mineral resources is unknown and can hardly be esti- 
mated ; for thus far there has been hardly more than a 
scratching of the surface, which, however, has revealed 
possibilities, nay certainties, of vast stores of coal, iron 
and copper, besides considerable quantities of other min- 
erals. This mineral wealth has naturally attracted the 
attention of foreign capitalists who have made numerous 
attempts to acquire the right to develop it. In some 



210 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

cases concessions have been too hastily granted by the 
Chinese Government, by the terms of which practical 
monopolies for the opening of mines in immense terri- 
tories have been given to foreigners. Recognizing its 
mistake, on repeated outbursts of local public hostility 
to the concessionaires, the Government has done its best 
to cancel, at a heavy expense, the obnoxious features of 
concessions already made ; and has made regulations in- 
suring the maintenance of adequate Government control 
and a substantial Government excise in all future mining 
undertakings. There will be an ample field for the ac- 
tivities of Chinese mining experts and skillful business 
managers in the development of China's mineral re- 
sources ; and these must come largely from the ranks of 
the Chinese students abroad. 

The improvement of public education comes peculiarly 
within the range of the possible advantages which the re- 
turned students may bring to their country. It is mani- 
festly impossible for China to send abroad for education 
enough young men to fill all the important technical po- 
sitions and places demanding expert knowledge which the 
carrying out of reforms and improvements will require. 
The students educated abroad must^ on their return to 
China, not only practice what they have learned, but 
must teach it to their countrymen at home. They will, 
perhaps, in many cases, devote themselves exclusively to 
teaching what they have learned of the principles of gov- 
ernment; of the technical arts and sciences; of law and 
medicine ; of the methods of commerce and transporta- 
tion ; of public utilities and sanitary measures, and of 
educational methods. They will be the chosen agents of 
the Government in the general establishment of common 
schools, and in the shaping of the curriculum and methods 
of study in those schools, to the end that the youth of 
China may get the best training for the new conditions 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 211 

of life into which their country is rapidly passing — and 
the best fitting of the colleges and professional and tech- 
nical schools with which the common schools must be 
supplemented. And in the scheme of education the edu- 
cation of the girls will not be neglected. For even if 
woman's most important work lies in the home, we know 
that the home is a better and a happier place for hus- 
band and children as well as for herself when the mother 
has a trained mind and an intelligent knowledge of things 
above the humdrum detail of the housewife's daily life. 
It is for this reason that the increasing number of wo- 
men students who are coming to this country is a specially 
pleasing fact — for it indicates a change in the attitude 
towards women in China and presages an improved po- 
sition for them. We may assume that the principal ob- 
ject of the women students now in this country — on their 
return to China — will be to promote the cause of female 
education, and we may rest assured that their part will 
be well done. 

In agricultural methods it may be thought that China 
has not much to learn from other countries. It is cer- 
tainly true that patient industry and careful fertilization 
and cultivation produce from the minutely subdivided 
farms of China about the maximum crops they are capa- 
ble of ; and in the thickly settled regions, where farms are 
so small and laborers so plentiful, there is little need of 
the labor-saving and time-saving devices and implements 
which alone make farming in America profitable. But in 
the vast and sparsely settled regions of Manchuria and 
other outlying parts of the Empire there is a great field 
for modern agricultural implements and for the scientific 
cultivation of large farms. And everywhere there are 
floods and droughts to be contended against by extensive 
systems of drainage and dikes, forestry and irrigation, 
where engineers and agriculturists must work together. 



212 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Then, too, the scientific selection of fertilizers adapted to 
different soils, the breeding and improvement of all kinds 
of hve stock, and the application of the latest methods in 
horticulture, which have produced such wonderful re- 
sults in the Western world, are almost unknown in China 
— while dairy farming, strictly speaking, does not exist 
there. There is, therefore, even for the student of agri- 
culture, a great field for useful work in China. 

And now I shall make brief reference to certain func- 
tions of government generally recognized in Western 
countries as important and essential to the public wel- 
fare, but which in China are either altogether neglected, 
or most inadequately attended to — I mean Government 
provision for the care of the poor, the insane and feeble- 
minded, the blind, the deaf, the disabled. It is recognized 
in all countries that the first resort of the unfortunate 
victims of such afflictions should be to their near rela- 
tives, who should keep them and care for them, or pro- 
vide for them to the best of their ability; and nowhere 
in the world is duty towards relatives, even those not of 
the closest consanguinity, more fully and practically rec- 
ognized than in China. For this reason the lack of Gov- 
ernment provision for these unfortunates is less keenly 
felt in China than it would be in countries where the 
claims of kinship are less freely recognized. But in 
China, as in every country, there are innumerable families 
for whom existence is a hand-to-mouth struggle from day 
to day — who with long days of hard work by every mem- 
ber of the family can just manage to get the bare neces- 
saries of life. To such families the support of disabled 
or afflicted relatives, even the nearest kindred, is a burden 
taxing their utmost resources, and testing their sense of 
duty to the limit ; and in many cases it becomes an im- 
possibility — the victims must be left to beggary, charity 
or death. There are, of course, also, instances in which 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 213 

the claims of kinship when costly are not acknowledged 
even by well-to-do relatives ; and except in the case of 
the closest relationship, such as parents and children or 
brothers and sisters, it is practically impossible, either 
by force of public opinion or by official intervention, to 
bring about such practical acknowledgment, and pro- 
vision for the wants of disabled or afflicted kindred. It 
is this vast number of helpless poor for whom their rela- 
tives either cannot or will not provide, that in Western 
countries become the inmates of institutions founded and 
maintained either by the Government or by corporations 
endowed by private gifts and bequests or by public sub- 
scription. Institutions of the latter description are not 
unknown in China, but they are comparatively few and 
their equipment and arrangements are meager. In 
America we find everywhere institutions for the blind 
where children and youth born blind or who have lost 
their sight are not only comfortably lodged, fed and 
clothed, but are made to learn useful work by which, 
without the aid of their eyes, they are able to earn a liv- 
ing, or at least to contribute towards their own support ; 
and they are taught to read with their fingers, are in- 
structed in music, encouraged to take part in games and 
amusements, made to take regular exercise, and have 
provided for them concerts, lectures and other entertain- 
ments which help to light the darkness of their perpetual 
night. Contrast the lot of these with that of the poor 
blind in China — sitting all day at the street corners wait- 
ing for meager alms ; or going from house to house with 
their apologies for music — the blind leading the blind — 
collecting a pittance to keep them alive in their wretched 
lodgings, where perhaps they are robbed of the greater 
part even of that pittance by the padrones, who exploit 
them. So, too, we find but rarely in China counterparts 
of the asylums for the insane, institutions for idiots and 



214 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

feeble-minded, hospitals for incurables, and for pa- 
tients afflicted with various diseases, homes for the aged 
or disabled poor, institutions for deaf mutes, orphan 
asylums, bureaus of organized charity and the many 
similar institutions which in this country and in Europe 
are doing so much to alleviate the misery caused by pov- 
erty and affliction. I do not mean that there is nothing 
of the kind in China, for charity and benevolence are as 
common there as in other parts of the world ; men of 
means do, in many cases, devote special time and atten- 
tion to some particular form of charity ; and the provin- 
cial and trade guilds often maintain establishments for 
the support of the poor and disabled of their own par- 
ticular people. But rarely does the Government, gen- 
eral or local, recognize responsibility in these matters ; 
and the few institutions which are maintained by con- 
tributed funds are crude and incomplete, aiming at noth- 
ing more than the provision of bare shelter and food to 
the inmates. In the establishment of Government hos- 
pitals, indeed, considerable progress has been made — 
owing to the general appreciation of the excellent work 
done by the many missionary hospitals which have existed 
in constantly increasing numbers for a generation past. 

A careful study of all these different institutions for 
the care and treatment of the poor, the disabled and the 
variously afflicted might well engage exclusively for a 
time the attention of a large number of the students ; that 
they may be prepared to take an active part in introduc- 
ing to their own country the great blessings which these 
institutions have brought to the poor and unfortunate in 
Western countries. 

In the fundamental principles of commerce China has 
not very much to learn- from Western nations. In the 
great requisites of success in mercantile business the Chi- 
nese merchant is generally acknowledged to be well 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 215 

equipped. He is quick to see opportunities and bold in 
seizing them ; he is economical, wasting nothing in use- 
less display ; he is shrewd in furthering his own interest, 
but wise enough to see that he does that best when he 
serves well his customers and deals fairly with competi- 
tors; and he keeps his word. It is these characteristics 
that have made the Chinese merchant so generally suc- 
cessful and so worthy of respect. But great changes have 
taken place in recent years in the scale on which business 
is carried on in the Western world ; and the tendency 
towards combination in the many great industries which 
have grown so rapidly of late, has made necessary new 
business methods to meet new conditions ; and only those 
who adopt the up-to-date methods can hope to succeed. 
These great combinations have not yet been introduced 
to any great extent in China. I am one of those who 
would like that they never should be — but their introduc- 
tion is probably inevitable, sooner or later; and we can 
only hope that in the hands of the Chinese business man 
they will be so managed as to yield the benefits which 
are unquestionably derivable from them, unaccompanied 
by the evils with which the unscrupulous greed of their 
promoters and managers has associated them in this 
country. The careful study of these great commercial en- 
terprises and industries should be undertaken by some of 
the Chinese students in America, that they may thor- 
oughly understand the principles on which they are run, 
and the details of management on which their success 
depends ; while endeavoring to distinguish between the 
legitimate advantages in them and the abuses which too 
often spring from them ; so that when these great com- 
binations begin to invade China, these students may be 
in a position to point out how they may be so conducted 
by their promoters, under proper Government control, 
as to bring more good than ill to the country. 



2i6 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Banking methods and clearing house procedure, fire, 
life and marine insurance, may be studied with profit, 
and the Chinese business man will be quick to see and to 
adopt any features in all these which would be an im- 
provement on existing methods in China. 

In what has been said I have outlined a few of the 
opportunities for usefulness which are open to Chinese 
students in America on their return to their native land. 
The list is by no means complete ; it is intended to be 
but an outline of what seems to me the most important 
of the subjects which should engage the attention of 
students. It could be added to and enlarged upon almost 
indefinitely ; and perhaps I have not mentioned some sub- 
jects which m.ay justly seem to many of you to surpass 
in importance some of those which I have specified. But 
is not this a programme sufficiently large and lofty to 
justify, a thousand fold, the policy which has sent stu- 
dents here, and to fill with ambition and enthusiasm the 
young men to whom such opportunities are offered ? The 
students of law, political science, history and methods of 
government will devote themselves especially to the re- 
form of the civil service, and the establishment of a sep- 
arate judicial system; the students of practical science 
will have for their special work the improvement and 
extension of ways and means of transportation, the de- 
velopment of mineral resources, the introduction of pub- 
lic sanitary works and municipal improvements, and of 
effective means of contending against China's ancient 
enemies — flood and drought. The students of finance 
and commerce will have to deal with the reform of the 
currency, and the management, regulation and control of 
trade and industries. The students of agriculture must 
attack the problem of afforestation, and introduce new 
branches or improved methods in agricultural and hor- 
ticultural industry, besides working hand in hand with 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 217 

the engineers in matters of drainage and irrigation. Stu- 
dents of medicine must devote themselves to the estab- 
lishment of hospitals, and devising measures for the pres- 
ervation of public health. And all students, whatever 
their special studies and aims may be, vi^ill work together 
to create a public sentiment in favor of general education 
on modern lines ; of public measures for safeguarding the 
health, comfort and security of the people ; and of sys- 
tematic provision, by the Government and by organized 
charities, for the poor and the variously disabled. 

And now, having said so much about what benefits the 
students may take back to their country from us, I want 
to speak a few words on the other hand concerning cer- 
tain respects in which China is already in a happy con- 
dition and needs not to learn of us ; and to urge the care- 
ful cherishing of these advantages, lest, in the movement 
toward modern material improvements, the good of the 
old ways should be discarded with the bad. What has 
China, then, which is better than what we can ofifer her 
in its stead? 

In the first place the Chinese have simplicity of life. 
The Chinese people are patient, industrious and frugal, 
content with a simple life, earning by daily toil the means 
of subsistence, and not looking for or coveting luxuries 
beyond their means. Their food is simple, but there is 
enough of it and in sufficient variety (I speak of the ordi- 
nary middle-class people), their clothing is sensible in 
its shapes, and adaptable to the seasons, but withal cheap 
and not subject to the vagaries and whims of fashion 
causing garments to be discarded long before they are 
worn out. Their houses are generally comfortable, and, 
if the income permits it, have some accessories and adorn- 
ment beyond the bare necessities of life ; but there is 
rarely any extravagant display. Economy and frugality 
are the rule ; and many of the necessities and comforts 



21^ CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

of life are home-made — spinning, weaving and the mak- 
ing of clothing and shoes being not yet lost arts in the 
Chinese household. Hence the cost of living is small, 
and a Chinese family can be maintained in comfort (ac- 
cording to their standard of comfort) on an income 
which would not begin to pay the rent of a family in a 
similar position in America. Now the introduction of 
modern material improvements is bound to create new 
wants, and to change the standard of living in China, as 
it has in Western countries. When we see our neighbors 
enjoying some new addition or improvement to the 
household economy, some labor-saving or comfort-in- 
creasing innovation, or some new means of amusement, 
we want it too — although we never missed it before ; and 
if we can afford it, it is good that we should have it. But 
such improvements and innovations have been so nu- 
merous and comprehensive in recent years, that to avail 
of them entails a cost which is burdensome if not pro- 
hibitory — the old income will not suffice for the new 
ways ; and the old ways must be followed ; no longer con- 
tentedly, but too often with bitter feeling and jealousy. 
And so, I think, the introduction of modern improvements 
into China is not going to be an unmixed blessing. In 
so far as these improvements cheapen the necessities of 
life, or add to its simple comforts, they will do nothing 
but good; but in so far as they minister to luxury, ease 
and pleasure and create new wants and set up new stand- 
ards in this respect, while they may still be good for 
those who can afford them, they may be a bane to 
those who cannot; for the increased diversion of capital 
to the creation of luxuries must result in an increased 
cost of the necessities of life. I merely call attention to 
this probability not with the belief that anything that I 
can say or that anybody could say, will avert the issue — 
for the evil must be taken vvith the good ; let us hope 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 219 

that the evil will not be more than the good. At any rate 
China must be prepared to lose much of the simplicity 
of life and the contentedness of her people ; for these are 
inconsistent with the attempt to keep pace with the rush 
of modern civilization. 

Again, China has a more even distribution of wealth 
than is found in this country. Great fortunes there are 
in China, but they are comparatively few ; and there is 
no restless striving for great wealth. They only add to 
the material wealth of the world who take some useful 
product from land or water, or devise and operate the 
ways and means of preparing it for use and of getting it 
to the consumer — he who gets wealth for himself by add- 
ing to the wealth of the world — by intelligent industry, 
or by discovering and operating new and improved meth- 
ods in any of the numerous paths and processes through 
which all products must pass before reaching the con- 
sumer, deserves his wealth ; and his possession of it 
ought not to excite envy and discontent. But he who adds 
to his own wealth only practicing clever and often un- 
scrupulous schemes for transferring to himself the pos- 
sessions of others, is of no benefit to the world — the 
greater his fortune the less is his merit ; and vast for- 
tunes thus made cannot fail to excite a sense of the in- 
justice of things in the minds of the struggling masses, 
and arouse apprehensions of serious trouble in the future. 
Colossal fortunes and extravagant display of wealth are 
extremely rare in China — may they ever remain so ! 

Next — and best of all — China is a peaceful and a peace- 
loving nation. That she may be kept so is the fervent 
wish of her truest friends, and should be the aim of her 
students in this country, so far as their efiforts and in- 
fluence will help. There are many who honestly believe 
that the only way to insure peace is to expend annually 
the cost of a small war, in the creation, equipment and 



220 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

maintenance of a powerful army and navy. The pic- 
ture of a magnificent navy, well-administered, officered, 
and manned; and a great army, well-disciplined, trained 
and equipped and efficiently commanded, is, no doubt, one 
which is lodged in the minds of very many of our Chi- 
nese students — as an ideal to be striven for, in the in- 
terest of the security, integrity, dignity and glory of their 
country. And if we were convinced that only by the 
possession of such an army and navy could China's in- 
tegrity be maintained and her full sovereign rights recog- 
nized, we should heartily advocate the policy of display 
of force. But the world is coming to believe that war is 
not a necessity, and that the scope of diplomacy and of 
international arbitration will gradually, or perhaps even 
suddenly, be enlarged so as to include all matters at is- 
sue between nations ; or that war may become impossible 
through the operation of an international pact, whereby 
every signatory nation shall bind itself to submit its own 
disputes, after diplomacy has done its best, to the de- 
cision of the Court of Arbitration, and to join with all 
the other nations in upholding the decisions of that 
court, and in helping one another by turning their united 
forces against the nation which refuses arbitration, or 
makes war upon another nation which has declared its 
willingness to submit its case to the court. Such a con- 
summation may yet be far off, but at least its possibility 
is recognized — it is no longer generally regarded as a 
chimera. A want of confidence in the ability and impar- 
tiality of the tribunal is the only sound reason any na- 
tion could have, believing fully in the justice of its case, 
for refusing to submit it to an international court of ar- 
bitration, but surely that tribunal could be chosen from 
the ablest and best men of all nations. Let not China be 
in a hurry, then, to create a great army and navy; let 
her rather be the first — lead the van — in subscribing: un- 



CHINESE STUDENTS IN AMERICA 221 

reservedly to an international pact for compulsory ar- 
bitration ; and thus shall she preserve her traditional char- 
acter as a peace-loving nation. The cost of a great army 
and navy is an enormous drain on the resources of a 
country ; and China's finances are in no condition to stand 
it. The strongest and richest nations of the world are 
finding the burden of " maintaining peace by preparing 
for war " almost too much for them — new and heavier 
taxes have to be laid year after year, and the voice of 
discontent is ever growing louder. Moreover, it is an 
open question whether the possession of a powerful army 
and navy does not in itself increase the danger of war, 
through the awakening of a desire to use them for glory 
or aggrandizement. It certainly puts the weaker of two 
nations in any dispute at a hopeless disadvantage with 
the stronger, without regard to the rights of the case. A 
well-equipped, well-disciplined and well-drilled force 
sufficiently large to maintain internal peace, and a fleet 
of well-found and well-commanded gunboats to suppress 
piracy on the coast, are all that China should try to main- 
tain at present. In her relations with other nations an 
invariable adherence to strict right, the exercise of great 
care as to agreements, but the strict discharge of obliga- 
tions once entered into, will put her in a stronger position 
and be a surer guarantee against aggression than would 
the possession of a great army and navy. 

Other advantages which China does not have to seek 
abroad consist in the possession by her people, in a 
marked degree, of certain good qualities and character- 
istics which I can only briefly mention here, without en- 
larging upon or illustrating them. 

The Chinese are orderly, law-abiding and well-behaved ; 
they have a strong sense of right and justice — are fair- 
minded ; they are reliable in commercial dealings — pay 
their debts, and keep their agreements whether verbal 



222 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

or written ; they are dutiful to parents, fond of children, 
and mindful of the ties of kindred; they are courteous 
and polite, mindful of eitquette, and punctilious about re- 
turning courtesies or favors ; they are respectful to elders 
and superiors ; they honor and respect character and in- 
tellectual ability, and do not recognize an aristocracy of 
wealth. This list might be largely extended, but it is 
enough to show what I have undertaken to show — that 
China has not, by any means, to seek abroad all the requi- 
sites for national greatness and popular welfare; some 
of the most important are hers already. It would be too 
much to say that we in America are inferior to the Chi- 
nese in all these characteristics which I have just men- 
tioned — and I do not believe that the Chinese students 
are going to suffer materially in any respect from their 
close contact with us during their stay in this country — • 
but I venture to say that the high standard of conduct 
and practice in some of the respects named, which is 
recognized equally in both countries as the one to be 
aimed at, is more generally attained to in China than in 
America. 

The benefits that China can get from us are many and 
great; the advantages which she has already are hardly 
less important. How much of the new shall be adopted 
and how much rejected — how much of the old shall be 
cherished and how much discarded — these are questions 
in the determination of which a very important part is 
to be taken by the Chinese students in America. 



XIII 

THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA— ITS STATUS 
AND OUTLOOK 

China has already passed the initial stages in a great 
transformation, political, industrial, social, educational, 
and is destined in the near future to set itself free from 
its age-long bondage to past ideals and institutions, and 
to place itself by the side of Western nations in their 
search after truth, and effort to better the conditions of 
life. Happily China does not need to lay new founda- 
/ tions for its political and social reconstruction. Chinese 
civilization is the outgrowth of the great maxims which 
her sages propounded setting forth their conceptions of 
the duties of life under the conditions of ancient society. 
These maxims are not mere germinal intuitions ; they are 
ripe judgments upon social polity, capable of entering 
into the ethical substructure of modern life. What 
higher end of learning could be proposed than that an- 
nounced by Confucius in the opening passage of " The 
Great Learning " : " The end of The Great Learning is 
to make lustrous the innately lustrous virtue, to renovate 
the people, and to rest in the highest good " ? This ornate, 
Oriental language means, when translated into modern 
English, that the end of education is ethical rather than 
intellectual. It aims to rightly develop the moral powers 
of the individual, who in turn should live to ennoble the 
lives of the people, that all may attain to the true goal 
of life, which is that of mutual right living. We can 
further accept without serious criticism the great sage's 

223 



224 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

enumeration of the cardinal virtues : " Benevolence," — 
or active good will towards others, — " Righteousness," 
" Propriety," — or conduct befitting the varied relation- 
ships of life, — " Wisdom," " Sincerity." So again we 
may accept the sage's resume of the basic social relation- 
ship, that of " Prince and official, parent and child, hus- 
band and wife, elder and younger brother, — including 
kinship in general, — and that of friend and friend." We 
may admit that Confucius saw only dimly the great truth 
that all men are brethren, but he clearly apprehended and 
gave expression to the truth that human life is subject 
to a moral order, a law pervasive and unceasing in its 
action, rewarding virtue and punishing evil. The an- 
cient sages named this law " The Law of Heaven," since 
they conceived it to be the outward expression of the na- 
ture of Heaven. Thus the Christian teacher finds ready 
at hand certain foundation truths, both of ethics and re- 
ligion, which he can appropriate for use, needing only 
to enlarge and enrich them with the conception that moral 
law expresses the nature not only of Heaven, but of 
the God of Heaven, since its source is in the beneficent 
character of God, which is the unchanging standard for 
right human conduct. 

Thus China in entering upon the acquisition of the new 
learning does not need to break rudely with the old 
learning in which her sages canvassed the capacities of 
human nature, the relationships of life, and the laws which 
bind society into a moral and spiritual organism. Chi- 
nese students may still regard the sages as sent of Heaven 
to be the great teachers of their fellow men. They do 
need, however, to break with the past in regarding the 
teachings of the sages as ultimate truth beyond which it 
is sacrilege to attempt to pass, and learn the lesson which 
Western scholarship has been slow to learn, that all truth 
is best apprehended when regarded as formative in its 



THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA 22^ 

nature, as directing thought ever onward into higher 
realms of truth. 

We need to guard against the misconception, — which 
has its source in ignorance, — that ancient Chinese learn- 
ing is without present value, that while it has, perhaps, 
answered some good purpose in the past, it has nothing 
to contribute to the present or the future. Such is not the 
estimate of the scholarship of China. China is taking 
her place among modern nations with a literature of 
which she is justly proud. She is willing, under the in- 
fluence of modern Western thought, to modify, indeed to 
revolutionize, her methods of study, and to use new ma- 
terial from without to broaden and perfect her educa- 
tional structure ; but she has no thought of wholly break- 
ing with the past, of turning her back upon her ancient 
sages, and committing herself blindly into the hands of 
her new teachers. There is danger of such results, it 
must be admitted, among Chinese students who have neg- 
lected the old learning in their zeal to acquire the new, 
especially among those whose education has been chiefly 
acquired abroad ; but su.ch men soon discover that they 
are seriously handicapped in competition with men who 
have added a knowledge of Western learning to a schol- 
arly knowledge and use of their own language and liter- 
ature. The leaders in the renovation of China now be- 
ing inaugurated are to be men able to transmit the best 
of their ancient tradition, enlarged and vitalized by the 
best that can be contributed by the new civilization of the 
West. It is, perhaps, not possible to arrest the world- 
leveling process in matters of dress and the general ex- 
ternals of social intercourse, but it is to be earnestly 
hoped that the old learning of China, while it will be pow- 
erfully influenced by the new, will not be set aside in ac- 
cepting the new, and that the youth of China will con- 
tinue to study the great thoughts of the sages, and with 



226 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

a more fruitful reverence than have their fathers, since 
they seek both to know those thoughts and to give to 
them a greater efficiency in the affairs of Hfe. 

Confucian learning constitutes the warp and woof of 
Chinese civilization. The teachings of the sages are the 
constitution of China ; they are the bed-rock upon which 
all laws are built. To disregard these teachings in the 
administration of government would be to antagonize 
conduct essential to the principles of right. But while 
Confucian thought contains so much of valuable and per- 
manent truth, and has exerted so powerful an influence on 
myriads of people, we must confess that it is narrow in 
its scope, and if not shallow in its view of human life, it 
is certainly shallow in its view of nature and of man's 
relations to nature. Chinese scholars all down the ages 
have been singularly indifferent to any rational interpre- 
tation of what their eyes have seen and their ears have 
heard of the ongoings of nature. They stop at the very 
threshold of the study of the external world and are sat- 
isfied with a crude interpretation of its transformations. 
They have been content to say that things are as they 
are by the law of their being. The forces of growth and 
decay, of life and change, act spontaneously and to their 
necessary ends, and it is idle to ask concerning the how 
or why. 

Confucian scholars have seriously lacked in their power 
of logical thought, the ability to infer, to think to a con- 
clusion. Confucius has won his high place as the great 
teacher of China by the clearness with which he appre- 
hended, and gave expression to, important ethical truths, 
that ought to be regulative in human life, and yet he was 
content to go back 2000 years to find the highest pat- 
terns of the social virtues, and undertook to bind the so- 
ciety of his times to the ideals of those early ages. Men- 
cius, who showed greater ability than his master to think 



THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA 227 

articulately, contributed much to illustrate and empha- 
size his teachings, but little to help men to apply them to 
new conditions, and so to prevent that social petrification 
which soon set in and put an end to all vital and pro- 
gressive thought. This lack of logical quality which 
characterizes the teachings of the sages of China has 
stamped itself on the thought of the people and has 
proved to be the arrest of all science and of all inven- 
tion in their initial stages, and has held Chinese thought 
in the grasp of the dead hand of the past. 

Chinese scholarship has produced a marvelous system 
of word-signs, and a literature of a far higher order of 
excellence than Western scholars have as yet appreciated. 
It has given to the literary class surprising skill in writ- 
ing these word-signs, making difficult and complicated 
groupings of pen-strokes into real works of art. And 
yet it has failed to train and discipline its students in the 
important art of speech. Many of the Chinese scholars 
have never learned how properly to talk. Their minds 
and fingers have been educated, but their tongues have 
been neglected. They have recently created a new word 
for a new thing — " yen shuo " — " Lecture," now being 
introduced from the West, where a man stands on his 
feet and addresses an audience on some theme in an or- 
derly and progressive manner. 

But what are the forces that have operated in recent 
years to set free the scholars of China from their bond- 
age to the old learning, and to turn their faces towards 
the learnijig of the present and future ? 

(i) It may seem strange to mention first in this enu- 
meration the wars in which China has engaged with 
Western nations. The resulting military campaigns, 
though of limited magnitude, were sufficient to inflict a 
succession of humiliating defeats upon China, and drive 
home to the people the conviction that these Western 



228 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

races, whom at first they had regarded as mere " red- 
haired barbarians," had a civilization comparable to that 
of China; that by their learning- and cunning they had 
gained possession of powers of nature that made them 
easy victors when they measured strength with the Chi- 
nese. The inference was inevitable : " We must study 
the Western art of war to protect ourselves against West- 
ern aggression." Thus it is as true of China as of Japan 
that the thunder of Western guns first awakened the peo- 
ple to a sense of their weakness and need in the presence 
of Western power. 

(2) Military invasion was followed by political de- 
mands. China must come out of her seclusion and ac- 
cept a place in the family of nations. She must enact 
treaties, must receive and send ministers and consuls. 
Here again, she must not only match strength with 
strength, but intellect with intellect, and she slowly dis- 
covered that she was dealing with nations with many 
centuries of experience in mutual intercourse, and that 
this experience had been codified into principles of in- 
ternational conduct, which the rulers of China must set 
themselves to study if they could hope to hold their own 
in the intricate and difficult game of diplomacy. 

(3) Through international intercourse Chinese youth 
found their way to the Western world and studied in • 
Western schools, to return in due time to give their new 
knowledge to their countrymen. These young men at 
the beginning of this movement, and well down to the 
present time, found themselves with their new learning 
and habits and tastes out of joint with Chinese thought 
which was still running in traditional lines. What they 
possessed of real value was unappreciated by Confucian 
scholars, who had not yet awakened to a realization that 
the Western world had anything of good to give to China. 
But while these men found themselves disappointed in 



THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA 229 

that leadership for which their wider knowledge fitted 
them, they did a necessary and important work in sowing 
their new ideas in their circle of relatives and friends, 
ideas that were certain to bear fruit at no distant time. 

(4) Mercantile intercourse has increasingly widened 
the acquaintance of the Chinese with the Western world 
and forced upon them the conviction that Westerners are 
possessed of a wide range of knowledge and of inventive 
skill wholly unknown to themselves, by which they have 
produced a long list of valuable products that minister 
to the pleasures of life ; indeed when known soon take 
their place as necessities of life. By intercourse with the 
West they possess themselves of clocks and watches, 
which mark time for them better than the stone sun- 
dial, and tell their story both in shade and in sunshine, 
at night as well as in the day. They substitute glass win- 
dows for paper and enjoy the light and warmth of the 
sun in their homes. They purchase fabrics spun and 
woven from wool which they can make into warm and 
elegant garments. They purchase coal oil which in their 
cities and villages adds some hours to their business day, 
and widens the range of social enjoyments. These and 
many other commodities of value are obtained by inter- 
change with the West. Slowly the desire is awakened 
not only to possess these articles but to acquire the art 
of producing them, and this desire in turn begets the wish 
to master the sciences which give such knowledge and 
skill in achievement. 

(5) The Chinese are a race of utilitarians. They are 
apt pupils in learning to make the earth yield her min- 
istry to their physical needs. The Chinese have discov- 
ered the industrial value of steamships, of railroads, of 
telegraphic and telephone communications. They have 
long known something of the value of their coal and min- 
eral deposits. They have now discovered the vast su- 



230 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

periority of Western methods and machinery to make 
the rocks yield up their treasures to the hand of man. 
They have come to realize that the Western world has 
new knowledge and new methods to gather from both 
land and water a more abundant ministry to the needs of 
man. Here again is a new set of benefits to be acquired 
by the new education, and Chinese students desire to en- 
ter into the laboratory to learn concerning the laws that 
operate in physical transformation ; they wish to study 
engineering that they may have a hand in building and 
superintending the railroads now multiplying in China, 
and in developing the coal and mineral resources of the 
country. They wish to study telegraphy to meet the in- 
creasing demand for competent operators ; to study 
economics to fit themselves for the customs and consular 
service. They wish to study scientific farming, horticul- 
ture, forestry, etc., that they in turn may become teachers 
of these new sciences to their countrymen. 

(6) For two generations foreign physicians in con- 
tinually increasing numbers have been entering China, 
and with their superior medical and surgical knowledge 
have saved multitudes of lives. Chinese physicians of 
the old order hardly deserve the name. Their ignorance 
of the nature of disease made them about as dangerous 
to their patients as the disease itself. Happily in their 
total ignorance of surgery they seldom dared to use the 
knife. Under such conditions the contrast with Western 
medical learning and skill was startling and convincing, 
and in due time the desire was created for modern medi- 
cal knowledge, which could be secured only as the reward 
of patient, orderly study. 

For many generations China has been the teacher of 
Japan. For the past generation conditions have been 
reversed, and China has been the slow and, until very re- 
cently, the reluctant learner of Japan ; but the influence of 



THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA 231 

Japan upon China in its marvelous political and social 
awakening, though slow in the beginning, is being felt 
with cumulative power. This influence is directly opera- 
tive in arousing the Chinese to an appreciation of the 
value, indeed the necessity, of a knowledge of Western 
learning. 

(7) Christian education at the hands of missionaries 
must have its place in this outline enumeration of the 
forces that have operated to produce the new education 
in China. Christian missions have had as the end of 
their activity the implanting of the Christian life in the 
hearts of the Chinese people. With this end central in 
thought they have put forth their chief effort to influence 
men and women of mature life, but as their work has 
enlarged they have increasingly realized that to make it 
indigenous and permanent it must be committed to the 
leadership of native men and women of wise heads as 
well as of true and earnest hearts, — and this means the 
education of children and youth under the best Christian 
conditions. Again, the Church does not lose sight of its 
central aim in broadening its educational activity and 
seeking to bring an ever-increasing number of non- 
Christian students into its institutions of learning, thus 
making Christian thought and life a pervasive influence 
in Chinese society. 

The following is a conservative estimate of the pres- 
ent status of Christian education in China: sixty thou- 
sand boys and girls are studying in three thousand 
schools of the primary grade. Their time is divided be- 
tween learning to read and write the Chinese language, 
learning the outline history and teachings of the Chris- 
tian religion, and the usual studies acquired by children 
of their grade in Western lands- Twenty thousand boys 
and girls are studying in five hundred Christian schools 
of the intermediate grade. They are carrying forward 



2^2 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

their Chinese and Christian studies and are taking up the 
more important Western studies of academic grade. 
Probably the majority of these students have already be- 
gun the study of the English language. Five thousand 
young men and women are studying in thirty Christian 
colleges. They are studying Chinese history and litera- 
ture, and are learning to compose in the literary form. 
They are studying ethics and psychology, political sci- 
ence and international law, mathematics and physical sci- 
ence. The knowledge of English is being increasingly 
emphasized in Christian schools, and probably one-half 
of the students in these schools are acquiring Western 
learning through its medium. 

Christian education had operated as a leaven in the 
life of China for a full generation before the general ed- 
ucational awakening set in, so that now the Chinese Gov- 
ernment, while in no mood to acknowledge indebtedness 
for the new learning to the Christian church, does so in- 
directly by levying heavy tribute upon Christian schools 
for its most competent teachers. 

Missionaries in China especially engaged in education 
have organized themselves into an Educational Associa- 
tion, now four hundred strong, and have held a series of 
triennial conferences with papers and discussions on ed- 
ucational themes. These papers have been widely read 
and have had a far-reaching influence. One important 
aim of this Association is to stimulate the production of 
an educational literature which shall be sympathetic with 
Christianity. This work of producing worthy text-books 
for the use of students and teachers, while it will never 
be completed, is already well past the beginning stage, 
and the new secular learning of China, whether or not 
it make due acknowledgment, is indebted to the mis- 
sionaries for the pioneer work in making Western learn- 
ing accessible to Chinese youth in the use of the Chinese 



THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA 233 

language. The work of making the Chinese language 
give adequate expression to Western thought throughout 
its wide range of learning is confessedly one of much 
difficulty. It requires a high order of scholarship to 
rightly combine characters to give expression to the de- 
sired thought. In this work the missionaries are exert- 
ing a formative influence, and the Chinese Board of Ed- 
ucation will do well to give respect to their contribution 
to the new terminology. 

There is another line of influence of great educational 
value through the awakening literature missionaries 
have produced and widely circulated among the officials 
and people. Drs. Williamson, Richard, Allen and Fa- 
ber have been pioneers in this work, and many others 
have contributed to it. Through books, magazines, pa- 
pers and leaflets they are teaching history, science, ethics, 
religion. They have discussed social and political prob- 
lems, and in many ways have opened up to the Chinese 
mind new treasures of knowledge, and quickened in them 
a hunger for things concerning which they were wholly 
ignorant in the past. 

We have above enumerated as contributing to the edu- 
cational awakening of China (i), the superior military 
power of the Western world; (2), political intercourse; 
(3), Chinese students returning from abroad with West- 
ern education; (4), mercantile intercourse; (5), the 
Western methods for the material improvement of the 
conditions of life; (6), the medical practice of foreign 
physicians; (7), the influence of the new life of Japan 
upon China; (8), the influence of Christian education. 
These influences operating for the past two generations 
upon the political and social life of China are sufficient 
to account for the new educational awakening. It is 
important to note that these influences have been per- 
vasive and cumulative. They have operated on all 



234 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

classes and conditions of society. The new learning has 
not first been accepted and set in order by the head, the 
Chinese Government, to be imitated later by the members, 
the various strata of society. Rather have these in- 
fluences operated first upon the members, and later 
through the members upon the head. The majority of 
the officers of government are the product of the learn- 
ing of the past, and they have been literally beaten into 
a reluctant recognition of the value of Western learning 
by the new conditions thrust upon China, and by the din 
and concussion of new ideas. This explains why the 
new learning seems to be haphazard in its inception, to 
be superficial in its scope and to be lacking in wise leader- 
ship. Schools rise and disappear like mushrooms with- 
out provision for their permanent support. Every 
viceroy and governor, indeed every official of the rank 
of Tio T'ai and above, must be a patron of this learning 
to meet the public demand. Thus they are developing 
university schemes and erecting buildings in nearly every 
provincial capital before they have produced teachers to 
give instruction, or qualified students to receive instruc- 
tion. But it would be false to represent everything as 
still in a superficial and haphazard stage. Not all in- 
terested in the new education are beginning at the ridge- 
pole and building downward. More and more per- 
manent beginnings are being made in real education, in 
multiplying primary and intermediate schools as fast as 
school-rooms can be provided and proper teachers se- 
cured. Already many of the Government schools have 
passed the experimental stage, and from this time the 
quality of teaching promises to steadily improve. It is 
to be regretted that the Chinese are seriously retarding 
their educational progress by too often placing imper- 
fectly equipped native or Japanese teachers in responsible 
positions, when by a more liberal policy they might secure 



THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA 235 

competent teachers from Europe and America to set 
for them a much-needed standard of thoroughness in 
their educational work. 

In the Boxer uprising of 1900, the attempt was made 
to cast out of mind and sight all Western thoughts and 
things, and continue to live on in the old order of life, un- 
disturbed by the events of the outside world. Following 
the collapse of this mad effort, two years later there 
spread a wave of interest both in the results and in the 
methods of Western learning. Here we contemplate two 
movements in mutual antagonism, and yet they are not 
without a causal relationship. Many of the leaders of 
China thought something as follows : " If Western 
learning has hidden in it power that we cannot contend 
against, and will ultimately crush us if we continue in 
our old social status, we must master that learning that 
we may wield the new power for our own protection." 
That this was the exclusive motive in the new movement, 
or that it is still dominant in the thoughts of educational 
leaders, we neither assert nor believe, but we are con- 
fident that it was powerfully active in inaugurating the 
new movement. As the youth of China drink more and 
more deeply at the fountains of the new learning they 
will more and more value it for itself, for its new out- 
look upon life, and for the pure delight of knowledge. 

We noted above that this educational movement has 
thus far lacked in efficient guidance, but the spontaneity 
of the movement makes for expansion and permanency. 
A new order of learning destined to revolutionize social 
conditions must at first be but superficially contemplated, 
fragments of knowledge must be gained as to its scope 
and utility, and these fragments as they multiply become 
inspiring thoughts, a necessary preparation for the ad- 
vanced movement. Thirty years ago Chinese scholars 
were well nigh deaf listeners when one undertook to talk 



236 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

with them as to any department in the wide range of 
Western learning. They had no basis of knowledge to 
be able to listen intelligently to what was told them. 
One " nibbler " after Western learning once asked me 
as to the latitude and longitude of the source of 
the Yellow River. The questioner had no notion of the 
meaning of the learned terms he had picked up, and when 
an answer was attempted he replied : " But how about 
the traditional teaching that the' Yellow River has its 
source in the Milky Way ('The Heavenly River') and 
flowing to the East again pours its waters into the Milky 
Way?" A Chinese astronomer accepted the Copernican 
theory of the revolution of the earth around the sun, but 
made an addition to that theory which he regarded of 
vital importance. " The earth is surrounded by a sphere 
of * Ch'i ' (primordial matter), and this sphere of 
' Ch'i ' with the earth as a hub rolls on the floor of the 
Universe, and so is kept in its orderly circuit ! " We 
now meet in increasing numbers an advanced type of 
scholars, men who can talk with you intelligently on a 
considerable range of Western subjects of knowledge. 
A Tao T'ai from his general reading talked with the 
speaker on social science, and spoke of the teachings of 
John Stuart Mill on this subject. Chinese periodicals 
are being multiplied which scatter a wide range of in- 
formation as to Western thought and themes, and are 
slovv'ly leavening the thought of the people. That which 
has found a superficial lodgment in the minds of the 
leaders of thought is certain through their encourage- 
ment to find a fuller lodgment in the minds of their 
children, and so later of the youth of China. 

But we would not give the impression that the Chinese 
Government is not putting forth serious effort to have 
a guiding hand in instituting the new learning in China. 
The abolition in 1905 by Imperial Edict of the old order 



THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA 237 

of provincial and local examinations, and substituting in 
place the Western system of examinations, was a radical 
step of far-reaching consequence, as it not only intro- 
duces new methods of education, but adds a new con- 
tent to such education. From ancient times the Chinese 
people have regarded the supervision of the work of 
education as an important function of government, and 
with only occasional exceptions men of learning have 
been leaders in the administration of government. A 
new Board of Education has been established in Peking 
whose important duty it is to unify and supervise the 
education of China. This Board is not yet composed of 
men who are masters of the new learning, but more and 
more they are commanding the help of such men. Al- 
ready they have proposed in outline a great national 
scheme of education. Children under seven are to be 
given their training in kindergartens, followed by lower 
and upper primary schools. These schools in theory 
must be provided by the Government throughout China 
in sufficient numbers to accommodate the needs of 
students. Intermediate schools are being opened in pre- 
fectural cities. Colleges are being established in each of 
the provincial capitals. A university is to be organized 
in Peking, at the outset to teach engineering, law, 
political science, pedagogy, etc., and to advance the range 
of studies to meet conditions as they develop. The 
Board has designated Bureaus to supervise specific de- 
partments of learning, to be in charge of men of special 
training. Several important special examinations have 
been held in Peking in which students holding diplomas 
from Western colleges and universities have been 
awarded high literary degrees. These examinations have 
proved creditable to both examiners and students, show- 
ing as they do that the Chinese Government is beginning 
to command the service of men of a high order of attain- 



238 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

ment in Western learning. Provincial superintendents of 
education are also appointed who, along with viceroys 
and governors, are active in developing schools of the 
various grades. These men in turn appoint examiners 
to give diplomas to student graduates, and, in general, to 
advance the standard of education. 

A movement is in preparation to establish in Peking 
a depot of educational supplies — text-books, maps, ap- 
paratus, etc., for the use of schools. Similar depots 
are being built up in provincial capitals. In Tientsin, 
and doubtless in other centers, a large building is devoted 
to an educational exhibit, a sort of educational informa- 
tion bureau, where both information and assistance are 
given in securing needed books and other supplies. 

This educational activity on the part of the Govern- 
ment is greatly assisted by the activity of individuals. 
Many of the officials contribute of their own means, or 
from some source of income, to establish schools of 
primary or secondary grade. In these secondary schools 
English must always have a place, though too often it is 
taught by men with only a smattering of knowledge. 
Many of these schools without a permanent source of sup- 
port have a rather precarious existence, but they bear wit- 
ness to the spirit of the new times, and prepare the way 
for more permanent schools. Many men of means, not 
officials, are founding schools as witnesses to their sym- 
pathy with the new movement. One such school built 
up by Mr. Chang Po Ling in Tientsin deserves special 
mention, since it is typical of a class of schools certain 
to increase in China. Pie has built up a school of the 
secondary grade with three hundred pupils. The in- 
struction given bears creditable comparison with the 
instruction given in the best grade of mission schools. 
Mr. Chang, though related to the highest rank of officials, 
has united with the Christian Church, and freely urges 



THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA 239 

the need of Christian ethics for the right regulation of 
conduct. 

The strength of this new educational movement is 
strikingly witnessed to by the School of Nobles now 
established in Peking. It includes both Chinese and 
Western lines of study, and is almost military in its 
regulations. Prince Ch'un, the present Regent of China, 
was a pupil in this school. His seat is still preserved 
in its place and the head instructor visits him from time 
to time to discourse to him on problems of government. 

The influence of the Commercial Press of Shanghai 
upon the new learning of China is deserving of special 
mention. This is an enterprise conducted wholly by the 
Chinese and for commercial ends, but the proprietors 
have shown a correct judgment of the demands of the 
times, and have given to the public an abundant and 
varied educational literature, which has been steadily 
absorbed by the wide demand, and has rewarded their 
enterprise with great prosperity. It is interesting to note 
that the new demands are not exclusively for helps in 
acquiring Western learning- Many new books are ap- 
pearing setting forth better methods for learning the 
Chinese language and mastering the ancient literature. 
The suggestion is often heard that the Chinese would 
some day set aside their language as cumbersome and 
effete, and adopt some Western language, but it is a sug- 
gestion made in ignorance of the Chinese people and 
of the power of growth and adaptation hidden in their 
language. It is, however, important in adding a vast 
range of new learning to their course of study that better 
methods should be devised for mastering their language. 
In this as in other things it has needed the sharp con- 
cussion of Western thought to push the Chinese out of 
their deep traditional ruts and lead them to the discovery 
of new and better methods of study. 



240 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Perhaps nothing proves more emphatically the radical 
nature of this educational awakening than the new in- 
terest in the education of women. In the old order of 
society, women were not the companions of men on terms 
of equality. Possibly one or two per cent, of the 
women could read and write, but the wife is called " the 
inside man," and education is thought to have for her 
no manifest value, indeed may prove an element of un- 
rest and disturbance. No thought was given to educa- 
tion for the value of knowledge in itself, and the new 
springs of happiness thus opened up to give quality to 
life. But China has been profoundly impressed with 
the educated Western woman, not a toy in her husband's 
household, not a servant, but a companion standing by 
his side in their varied social relations, and an intelli- 
gent mother to her children. Already the new Chinese 
woman is beginning to appear, a true sister to the West- 
ern woman. She has, perhaps, been educated in some 
mission school, or has returned with a yet wider educa- 
tion from Europe or America. Such women — as yet all 
too few — are in demand as leaders in the new education 
for women. In Peking and in many other cities the at- 
tention of the visitor is attracted to groups of students 
in modest students' uniforms going to and from their 
various schools, and you note that many of these students 
are girls and young women. A delightful description 
has just come to hand of the graduation exercises in a 
kindergarten school in Peking, in which a flock of forty 
little people went through with faultless accuracy their 
prescribed evolutions and received their diplomas. This 
school was founded by high Chinese officials, the Prince 
Regent being the largest giver. Truly a new day has 
dawned on China when such things are accomplished by 
the Chinese of their own initiative. 

In attempting to speak on the theme of the New Edu- 



THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA 241 

cation in China, I had no hope of doing more than to 
give an outhne impression of the vast movement now 
setting in and gathering force on every hand. This 
movement is destined more and more to be fed from the 
springs of Western learning. Chinese students are go- 
ing abroad in increasing numbers to Japan, to America, 
to Europe, to return in due time to become educational 
leaders among their countrymen. I have recently 
learned an interesting fact, that fifty Chinese students 
born in Hawaii are now studying in colleges in Shanghai, 
Nanking and Wuch'ang, to fit themselves for a life 
career among their own people. This new type of 
leaven in the old lump is certain to increase. Again, 
Western institutions of learning are awakening to the 
opportunity now presented to give a helping hand in 
this Chinese educational renaissance. Oxford and Cam- 
bridge in England, and Chicago University in America, 
are already maturing plans to give efficient assistance. 
Yale has an incipient university setting itself in order 
in the heart of China, and other universities are moving. 
in the same direction. We are at the beginning of a 
movement of unprecedented promise for China and for 
the world. 

The interests of truth compel me to add in conclusion, 
that there is a serious danger lurking in the new educa- 
tion of China as it is taking form. Education has its 
highest ends not in knowledge, but in character, not in 
ability to master the forces of nature, but the forces of 
the human passions and affections. Thus far the 
majority of Chinese students desire to acquire Western 
learning for the sake of the power it will give in better- 
ing the external conditions of life, and slight thought is 
given to the acquisition of moral power to improve the 
internal order of their life, also. I have already 
expressed high appreciation of the ethical thought 



242 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

embodied in the teachings of the sages of China, These 
teachings have been the great conserving power in 
Chinese civiHzation for three thousand years, and yet 
they have lacked dynamic force to make them more than 
partially realized in society. In China — probably not less 
than in other non-Christian countries — there is a sad di- 
vorce between knowledge and conduct. Ideal conduct is 
everywhere praised, but social habit moves along a dis- 
tinctly lower plane, and hides much that is evil under a 
cover of conformity to custom. In the old order of society, 
students lived for the most part at home, and were taught 
in small schools by local teachers. Under these condi- 
tions, moral restraints were at their maximum, and the 
foundations of a self-respecting manhood were laid. 
But in the government schools not only does the new 
learning come to the pupils carefully divorced from 
Christian ethical or religious teaching, but Confucian 
learning in the thought of both teachers and pupils oc- 
cupies a secondary place. Students with undeveloped 
characters are separated from their homes, are thrown 
into a promiscuous companionship, with temptations to 
evil lurking on every hand, resulting too often in moral 
degeneracy. This has been the painful outcome of the 
flocking of Chinese students by thousands to Japan. The 
Chinese Government has been justly alarmed at the out- 
put of education under such conditions, but it is not yet 
alive to the evils hidden in the new government system 
of education. 

The Christian Church believes that it can give to the 
youth of China an education that supplies the lacking 
ethical element, that it cannot only set before Chinese 
pupils the right ideals of conduct, in many of which the 
teachings of Confucius and Christ are in essential agree- 
jnent, but can present in Christian teachers examples of 
men and women who are livins: toward these ideals in 



THE NEW LEARNING OF CHINA 243 

their life relations. Mr. Chang Po Ling, above spoken 
of, recently presented a copy of the New Testament to a 
friend belonging to the Board of Education, and added 
the remark : " This is the only hope of China." 

The superior ethical element in Christian education is 
widely recognized by non-Christian Chinese, and yet their 
valuation is superficial and inadequate, so that in spite 
of the failure of Confucian ethics to build up robust 
moral character, they cling to the traditional estimate of 
its value, with a pervasive suspicion that, notwithstand- 
ing the high ethical standard in Christian education, 
there is hidden in it a lurking element of danger. It 
gives expression to the moral thought and erects the 
standard of living of an outside civilization, which 
threaten to overturn their old system of thought and 
transform the old ideals of life. It is true that Christian 
ethics is destined to work great changes in the Eastern 
world, as it has already wrought in the Western world. 
The spirit of Christianity is that of benevolent aggres- 
sion. It does not cease in its efiforts to do good by 
reason of encountering mere indifference or opposition. 
Christian education in China, though a generation in ad- 
vance of the new government education, is still in its 
initial stage, and its influence is certain to be vastly wid- 
ened and deepened in the near future, if the educational 
work now begun is allowed to have its normal develop- 
ment. Christian men and women will more and more 
occupy positions of influence in the various orders of 
society, and Christian ideals of life will increasingly as- 
sert themselves. 

We have been in the habit of thinking that great 
political and social changes require long periods for their 
accomplishment, and this has been true in past history, 
but we need to remind ourselves and give emphasis to the 
thought, that in this age of steam and electricity, of swift 



244 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

and easy intercommunication, political and social changes 
move at an equally rapid pace with physical changes. 
The great thoughts of individual rights, of liberty, of 
reciprocity, of giving to others for the enrichment of the 
common life, required in the Western world many cen- 
turies of conflict before they were permitted to take their 
place as motive-forces in society ; but these thoughts are 
already well advanced in securing acceptance in China — 
at least as a theory of human rights and duties. China 
may yet for a brief period continue to misunderstand the 
altruistic motives in Christian education, to treat her 
own sons and daughters as semi-aliens because they have 
committed the offense of choosing for themselves the 
better things of the Christian faith, but this period will 
swiftly pass, and the Chinese will learn that the hand 
of help in educational, social and political renovation 
stretched out to her from Christian lands is a hand that 
is directed by the same beneficent Spirit that wrought in 
the teachings of the sages, and is together with those 
teachings the gift of Heaven to this people. 

All who have wrought for the Chinese believe in their 
race capacity. They will, with proper training and ex- 
perience, match the Anglo-Saxon at his best in the varied 
activities of life. They have the instincts for law, for 
order, in the family, in society, in government, that only 
need to be strengthened and directed by steady moral 
purpose, to make of them a great industrial, intellectual 
and moral force in the world, making returns a hundred 
fold to Western nations for the help they have extended 
to China in this period of adjustment to the new and 
better order of life opening up before its people. 



XIV 

THE HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN 

CHINA 

Factors entering into the uplift of that fourth of the 
human race resident in China cannot fail to interest every 
broad-minded man and woman. As the discussions of 
the past few days have made very evident, the increments 
of recent progress in the Far East are manifold and have 
affected different peoples variously. It would be most 
profitable to study the comparative influence exerted by 
all those external forces and ideas affecting a given 
nation — the Chinese, for example — which during the last 
half century in particular have so largely reshaped the 
Orient. Time limitations make this impossible even when 
our thought is concentrated upon a single empire, so 
that only incidental references to politics, commerce, etc., 
will be made in our treatment of China this morning. 
This preliminary word is intended as a warning against 
a prevalent tendency among Christian people interested 
in missions to suppose that the only forces entering into 
the national regeneration of China are those exerted by 
godly and energetic missionaries. Even more prevalent 
among Protestants who have heard much about the cen- 
tenary of Morrison's arrival in China, celebrated so 
profitably in 1907, is the impression that all the religious 
progress of the past century is the sole result of Prot- 
estant labors. If we would know the truth as to this 
supposition, we ought to be catholic enough to ask what 
all the branches of the Christian Church — Nestorian, 
Roman, and Greco-Russian, as well as Protestant — have 

24s 



246 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

accomplished and, except in the case of Nestorianism, 
are accomplishing to-day for the social, mental, and reli- 
gious betterment of China's more than 400,000,000 in- 
habitants. 

Manichaeans in China 

Little need be said concerning this stadium of Chris- 
tianity in China. Still less shall I say of those traditional 
labors of earlier apostles in the Land of Sinim. Stories 
of St. Thomas, the doubter, have been an interrogation 
point in Christianity's Asiatic traditions, both in India 
and China. We may dismiss those referring to his 
preaching in the latter country as groundless, even if 
any should be disposed to give credence to the Indian 
traditions. Within three centuries of our Saviour's as- 
cension, Arnobius speaks of Christian deeds done among 
the Seres, which may be those of Christian missionaries 
in China. More probable are the traditions as to the 
propagation of a heretical form of Christianity by Mani, 
also in the third century. Before Manichaeus had been 
crucified and flayed alive in 2^6 of our era — we follow 
the Oriental account of Mani, rather than the less trust- 
v/orthy Western traditions — he had in all probability 
carried his eclectic faith, quite as much Chaldeism and 
Buddhism as Christianity, to the confines of China, north 
of Turkestan, Here it was that in his rock cave, whose 
rough walls he adorned with mural paintings, he gained 
his name of Mani, the artist or painter. Whether his 
stuffed skin, hung in terrorem over the gates of Per- 
sepolis, had a neutralizing effect upon his Far Eastern 
preaching or not, the fact remains that though in 500 a.d. 
the Manichaeans were found in Hsi-an Fu and later had 
temples in that city, in Ho-nan Fu, Tai-yiian Fu, and 
Ningpo, their beliefs had little influence upon the 
Chinese. To-day no trace apparently remains, though 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 247 

some ^ hold that their doctrines are the root whence 
sprang the White Lotus sect, whose members are so 
obstinate even now in adhering to their rehgious faith. 
More certain is it ^ that Manichaeism entered materially 
into that form of Buddhism carried back to Japan by 
one of her most famous sons, the supreme teacher, 
Kobo Daishi, whose body after many centuries is sup- 
posed to rest in dreamless trance beneath the hazy sum- 
mit of beautiful Koya San. 

N estorianism in the Empire 

Nestorian influence in China may be more accurately 
traced. In a proclamation of the real, not nominal, 
founder of the glorious T'ang dynasty, dated the seventh 
moon of 638, we read : " Tao has no constant name, 
holiness no constant form ; cults are established accord- 
ing to place for the unobtrusive salvation of the masses. 
The Persian bonze Alopen has come from afar to sub- 
mit to Us at Our capital his scriptural cult. Examin- 
ing closely into the significance of that cult. We find it 
transcendental and quiescent; that it represents and sets 
forth the most important principles of our being, just as 
much as it tends to the salvation and profit of mankind. 
It may well be carried over the Empire. The executive 
will therefore forthwith erect in the I-ning ward of the 
city a monastery, with twenty-one qualified priests." ^ 
A tolerably full account of the entrance and fortunes of 
the new faith, known in China as the Ta Ch'in Ching 
Chiao, the Great Western Illustrious Religion, or 

1 See, for example, Richard, Conversion by the Million, Vol. 
II., p. 120. 

2 See Prof. Lloyd in Transactions of the Asiatic Society of 
Japan, Vol. XXXV, Part II., pp. 193-21 1. 

2 Parker, China and Religion, p. 121. 



248 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Church, is found on this same coarse marble monument 
■ — possibly the oldest Christian inscription in Asia — from 
which the proclamation has just been quoted. 

Though erected in the year 781, its record goes back 
to 635, the time of Alopen's arrival at the Chinese capital 
of Hsi-an Fu. We thus have here one hundred and fifty 
years of Nestorianism's authenticated history. It would 
appear that in the eighth century, the Illustrious Religion 
had been preached in ten of China's provinces and that 
Imperial favor had been frequent and helpful. Indeed, 
like the early Jesuit propaganda, the attempt seems to 
have been made to gain royal favor rather than to win 
the masses to the new faith. In order to conciliate the 
higher classes, their statement of doctrine was very diplo- 
matic. The British Sinologue, Prof. Parker, of Victoria 
University, Manchester, writes : * "It will be noticed 
that no stress is laid upon damnation, the sacraments, 
confession, repentance, the sanctity of marriage rites, the 
immaculate conception, the crucifixion, passion, resur- 
rection, life everlasting, and many other things in- 
separable from the belief of most Christians of the pres- 
ent day. Of course it is very possible that King-tsing 
[Ching^ Ching*], the author of the inscription, en- 
deavored to compose a record which would not shock 
Confucian prejudices more than was absolutely neces- 
sary, and that he may have deliberately chosen to state 
only half the truth, leaving out all dogmas involving ap- 
parent departure from the ordinary course of nature. 
It is also likely that, as he was bound — in the absence of 
any other ready-made phraseology — to draw upon Taoist 
and Buddhist terms, he felt it prudent to avail himself 
also of accepted Taoist and Buddhist ideas, so far as 
they did not clash with his own teachings. Even Mani- 
chaeism is, or seems to be, conciliated." 

* China and Religion, pp. 125, 126. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 249 

In this ecclesiastical diplomacy, some writers find a 
partial explanation of Nestorianism's failure to widely 
influence the Chinese people. One of them, Dr. George 
Smith, who represents a totally different school from 
that to which Prof. Parker belongs, expresses his deep 
conviction in these words : ^ " While Pantaenus stands 
at the head of the evangeHcalism which has ever since 
carried to Asia the missionary message that God is in 
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, Nestorius is 
the representative of those who preach a Christ who is 
less than Divine, and who have therefore ever failed to 
convert mankind. Nestorianism became such a com- 
promise with heathenism as led to Mohammed's teach- 
ings. . . . This fact of compromise must be re- 
membered when we proceed to look at the otherwise 
bright missionary progress of Nestorian Christianity in 
Asia, Central, East, and South." 

Doctrinal accommodation and curtailment do not alone 
explain why this form of Christianity, entering China in 
the seventh century, gradually fades from view, until 
after the close of the fourteenth all reference to it 
ceases.® During these seven and a half centuries, the 
Chinese Court had been touched with the Christian in- 
fluence, fifteen provinces had heard the word of God in a 
limited way, the Bible had been translated in part at 
least, and the lives of priests and ordinary Christians had 
been so comparatively pure that even in Marco Polo's 
time they were generally respected. Besides propagat- 
ing a partial view of Christianity, what they had failed 
to accomplish, was to make no earnest effort to establish 
a self-propagating church, enter into no determined 

^ The Conversion of India, pp. IS, 16. 

® Cordier says (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. III., p. 669), that 
traces of them were found by the Jesuits at the beginning of 
the seventeenth century. 



250 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

effort to teach the Bible which they had partially trans- 
lated, and taken no pains to educate native leaders. On 
this latter point a recent writer on Nestorianism in China, 
Rev. W. S. Walsh, says :'' "I should like to point out 
one other cause to which the overthrow of the work may 
be traced — I mean the neglect of school work and the 
training, of Chinese pastors and teachers. Nowhere 
have I been able to find any trace of Nestorian Christian 
schools. Marco Polo speaks of churches, the Nestorian 
inscription tells of tonsured monks and orderly worship, 
and had there been a good school at the capital or else- 
where, we may almost certainly say that it would have 
been mentioned. But no effort seems to have been made 
to use and develop the Chinese Christians as teachers, 
speakers, doctors or pastors, and in China any mission 
which neglects this branch of the work is foredoomed to 
failure." It is but fair to add, that had the Nestorian 
Church been open to none of these criticisms, it would 
nevertheless have suffered partial if not entire extinc- 
tion during the troublous centuries, when owing to 
Moslem strength in Central and Western Asia, the 
Church was cut off from supplies and men that could 
not be sent from the home base, and when persecution 
and Government disfavor blotted out the early and suc- 
cessful work of the Roman Church also, which had en- 
tered the China field. 

Roman Missions and Missionaries 

The first Christian force to influence China's religious 
life permanently proceeded from Rome. It was in that 
time of dreadful fear, occasioned by the looming up on 
the eastern European horizon of conquering Mongol 
hordes, that Pope Innocent IV. in 1245 dispatched to the 

T The East and the West, April, 1909, p. 217. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 251 

Tartar chieftain, to ascertain his intentions, an am- 
bassador, John of Piano Carpini, a Franciscan. He re- 
turned to Avignon from the Mongol Capital of Kara- 
korum in 1247. Though another Franciscan, William 
of Rubruck, was later sent to the Mongol Court by St. 
Louis, King of France, the real founder of this first 
Roman mission to China was John of Montecorvino, who 
reached China via India in 1292. He was kindly re- 
ceived by the great Kublai Khan — whose mother was a 
Christian, a niece of Prester John — and shortly he had 
erected in Peking a church " which had a steeple and 
belfry with three bells that were rung every hour to 
summon the new converts to prayer." ^ Though op- 
posed by .the Nestorians, at the end of eleven years he 
had baptized nearly six thousand persons " and bought 
one hundred and fifty children, whom he instructed in 
Greek and Latin and composed for them several devo- 
tional books." ^ 

The story of this devoted missionary Is most interest- 
ing. A hint of it may be gained from an extant letter of 
his written when he was nearly sixty. " It is now twelve 
years," he writes, " since I have heard any news from 
the West. I am become old and gray-headed, but it is 
rather through labors and tribulations than through age, 
for I am only fifty-eight years old. I have learned the 
Tartar language and literature, into which I have trans- 
lated the whole New Testament and the Psalms of David, 
and have caused them to be transcribed with the utmost 
care. I write and read and preach openly and freely 
the testimony of the law of Christ." ^^ He believed in 
making the great facts of Scripture vivid in the imagina- 

8 Williams, Middle Kingdom, Vol. II., p. 287. 
^ Quoted by Williams from The Chinese Repository, Vol. III., 
p. 112. 

10 Williams, Middle Kingdom, Vol. II., p. 288. 



252 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

tion of believers, and for that reason, and that he might 
" captivate the eyes of the barbarians," he had the mys- 
teries of the Bible pictured in all his churches. It is 
not surprising after such a life to read in one of the old 
records of his decease, which occurred in 1328,^^ after 
he had converted more " than thirty thousand infidels," 
that "all the inhabitants of Cambaluc [Peking], without 
distinction, mourned for the man of God, and both 
Christians and pagans were present at the funeral cere- 
mony, the latter rending their garments in token of grief, 
. . . and the place • of his burial became a pil- 
grimage to which the inhabitants of Cambaluc resorted 
with pious eagerness." ^^ 

Though under Montecorvino's successors the work 
was continued and extended as far south as the province 
of Fu-chien, it was not destined to continue. With the 
dissolution of the Mongol dynasty and the accession 
of the Ming emperors, persecution and other causes 
speedily wiped out all remnants of Roman and Nestorian 
Christianity, so that Prof. Parker can write : ^^ " Dur- 
ing four-fifths of the native Ming dynasty (1368-1644), 
it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that the very idea 
of * Christian,' not to say the word, or any word for it, 
does not once occur in the Chinese annals." 

It is at the close of the Ming dynasty that Romanism's 
second and very successful entrance into the Empire is 
recorded. If, as the French savant, Prof. Cordier, sug- 
gests,^* the Dominican friar, Caspar da Cruz, was actu- 
ally the first modern missionary in China, where he re- 
mained but a short time, it was the Jesuits under Matteo 

11 Dr. Hoffman (Lives of the Leaders of Our Church Uni- 
versal, p. 219), says in 1332. 

12 Williams, Middle Kingdom, Vol. IL, p. 288. 

13 China and Religion, p. 189. 

1* The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. IIL, p. 670. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 253 

Ricci who were the first to lay a solid foundation for 
missions in the Celestial Empire, thus realizing the long- 
ing of that flaming member of their order, Francis 
Xavier, whose wish when dying on the threshold of 
China his successor Valignani so forcefully voiced, " O, 
mighty fortress! when shall these impenetrable brazen 
gates of thine be broken through ? " ^^ 

Arriving in China, this foremost among Roman mis- 
sionaries " for skill, perseverance, learning, and tact," 
gained a foothold on the mainland in 1583. But Ricci 
was not content to remain at Chao-ch'ing Fu, even 
though it was then the capital of the " Two Kuang " 
provinces. The Jesuits had besought the Governor for 
permission to build on the mainland on the ground that 
" they had at last ascertained with their own eyes that the 
Celestial Empire was even superior to its brilliant re- 
nown. They therefore desired to end their days in it, 
and wished to obtain a little land to construct a house 
and a church where they might pass their time in prayer 
and study, in solitude and meditation." ^^ Ricci was 
more ambitious than his comrades and would rest con- 
tent with nothing less than the Imperial city and the 
Dragon Throne. That vision was finally realized for 
permanent residence during the first year of the seven- 
teenth century, after nearly eighteen years of study and 
toil and service, and, it must be added, not wholly without 
guile. From 1601 this active propagandist was tireless 
in his varied activities until his death in 1610. Ricci's 
literary gifts were extraordinary, and not a few of his 
writings are still in use ; one or two even by Protestants. 
His topics were well chosen to attract the literati, and 
scarcely any foreigner has succeeded so well in clothing 
Christian ideas in an alluring garb. But in addition to 

^5 Encyclopsedia Britannica, Vol. XVI., p. 517. 
16 Williams, Middle Kingdom, Vol. II., p. 290. 



254 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

such labors, as head of a mission with four stations a 
taxing correspondence was carried on, besides that which 
was necessitated by inquiries coming- from all parts of 
the Empire as to the doctrines taught and the books 
which he had written. Visitors in great numbers were 
always made welcome ; new converts were to be received 
as true brothers ; and grievous burdens arising from his 
relations to officials and to the Court pressed upon him 
heavily. Even in his demise, his final service to the 
cause was foreshadowed in his words : ^'' " My fathers, 
when I reflect by what means I may most efficaciously 
propagate the Christian faith among the Chinese, I find 
none better nor more persuasive than my death," a be- 
lief which materialized, as Hue remarks, in his public 
interment with the Emperor's official sanction, thus legal- 
izing Christianity in a way. 

For a century and a half after Ricci's entrance, the 
Empire was open quite generally to Western influences, 
mainly on the religious and educational-literary side. 
Brilliant men followed him to the Court who commended 
Christianity by their scientific attainments which they 
were ever ready to place at the Emperor's service. The 
names of two of them are well known in China : the 
learned German Jesuit, Adam Schaal von Bell, made 
" President of the Mathematical Tribunal," and at one 
time tutor of the famous Emperor K'ang Hsi ; and 
Ferdinand Verbiest, a most famous astronomer and 
maker of some of the superb astronomical instruments 
whose beauty attracted many to the old Peking observa- 
tory, until the looting of them by foreign powers in 1900, 
a man of whom Medhurst writes : ^^ " His character, 
for humility and modesty, was only equalled by his well- 
known application and industry. He seemed insensible 

" Marshall, Christian Missions, Vol. I., p. 66. 
18 China : Its State and Prospects, p. 193. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 255 

to everything but the promotion of science and religion. 
He abstained from idle visits, the reading of curious 
books and even the perusal of European newspapers; 
while he incessantly employed himself, either in mathe- 
matical calculations, in instructing proselytes, in corre- 
sponding with the grandees of the Empire on the in- 
terests of the mission, or in writing to the learned of 
Europe, inviting them to repair to China. His private 
papers are indicative of the depth of his devotion, the 
rigor of his austerities, his watchfulness over his heart 
amid the crowd of business, and the ardor with which 
he served religion. His sincerity was attested by the 
endurance of sufferings in the cause which he had 
espoused, and his disinterestedness and liberality by the 
profusion of his gifts to others and the renunciation of 
indulgences to himself." 

Yet this period of one hundred and fifty years, though 
it saw the wide extension of Christianity, the erection of 
a noble church within the precincts of K'ang Hsi's 
palace, and the accomplishment of perhaps still the best 
survey of the Empire, executed by the missionaries dur- 
ing the years 1708-1718, was nevertheless a time of fre- 
quent reverses and even persecutions. " The venerable 
Adam Schaal at the age of seventy-four was loaded with 
chains and cast into prison, together with a crowd of 
converted mandarins, of whom five were martyred. 
Schaal was sentenced to be strangled and chopped in 
pieces ; but it is related " — I am quoting a Romanist his- 
torian of their China mission ^^* — " that whenever the 
judges assembled to read the decree, they were forced by 
earthquakes to fly from the tribunal." Though he did 
not meet so dreadful a fate, he sank under the outrages 
received and died in 1666. It was the eminence of a 
little circle of missionaries at Court which once and 

18a Marshall, Christian Missions, Vol. I., p. 69. 



256 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

again stilled the threatening storm. Had it not been for 
the virulence of the inter-order controversy which ar- 
rayed Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans in oppos- 
ing and bitterly hostile camps — a battle royal which was 
partly political also, as different orders were under the 
protection of unfriendly European powers, and which 
caused successive Popes to rule against each other in a 
way that imperiled the later dogma of Infallibility — 
Roman missions might have escaped the eclipse which 
began with the order of Yung Cheng, K'ang Hsi's son 
and successor, issued in 1724 and strictly prohibiting 
the propagation of the T'ien Chu Chiao, or Lord of 
Heaven Church, as Roman Catholicism is denominated 
in China. 

During the thirteen decades of persecution, extending 
from the issuance of the prohibitory order just mentioned 
until the treaties of 1858 inaugurated a new era for mis- 
sions, exile, imprisonment, and death were common ex- 
periences, and some of the most heroic deeds are re- 
corded of both missionaries and their converts, thus 
disproving the untrue criticism of the Protestant Giitzlaff 
that the Roman missionaries had " converted thousands 
without touching the heart." At risk of life converts 
stood by the Church and its leaders most nobly, and in 
spite of all opposition, 400,000 Chinese were enrolled as 
Romanists in 1846, and eighty European missionaries 
ministered in great peril to their scattered flocks. 

In the view of some Roman authorities, even more 
inimical to the Church than outlawry and bitter persecu- 
tion was the strife within the Church already alluded to. 
It culminated with the Bull " Ex quo singiilari " of Pope 
Benedict XIV., issued in 1742, which condemned the 
Chinese ceremonies as idolatrous and finally established 
T'ien Chu, Lord of Heaven, as the exclusive designation 
of God, thus putting an end for Catholic missionaries to 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 257 

the " term question," which has been until recently a bone 
of contention among Protestants. So acute a scholar as 
Henri Cordier, like a faithful son of the Church, only 
last year had this to say of that decision : " " Rome 
having spoken, no more can be said here on the question ; 
but it may be noted that the Bull Ex quo singulari was 
a terrible blow to missions in China. There are fewer 
Christians than formerly and none among the higher 
classes, as were the princes and mandarins of the Court 
of K'ang Hsi." Indeed, the professor might have gone 
back to that Emperor's predecessor, whose mother, prin- 
cipal wife, and eldest son had been baptized by Father 
Koffler, and who had dispatched a letter to Pope Alex- 
ander VII. upon which high hopes were built, though in 
vain. Such converts as Paul Hsii, the famous mandarin, 
and his daughter ^^ Candida, who according to Du Halde 
founded thirty churches in her own part of the country, 
and caused nineteen to be built in different provinces of 
the Empire, were won even earlier by Ricci himself, and 
they have no parallels to-day. 

The course of Roman Catholicism since the treaties 
of half a century ago has been one of steady progress, 
despite the temporary set back to missions of every 
Christian name which occurred at the time of the Boxer 
outbreak in 1900. A hint of the extent of their opera- 
tions may be had from a few statistical items taken from 
the latest German Catholic statistical work, issued last 
year.^^ According to Krose, there were in China and 
its dependencies, 1,026,168 Catholics, including 14,000 of 
European extraction, most of them presumable at the 
Portuguese settlement of Macao. Ministering to them 

19 The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. III., p. 672. 

20 Marshall, Christian Missions, Vol. I., p. 65, says she was 
his granddaughter. 

21 Krose, Katholische Missions-statistik, p. 79. 



258 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

were 1,261 European and 550 Chinese priests, 291 lay- 
brothers, and 3,846 members of various sisterhoods.^^ 
The conquering sign of the Cross marked 6,070 
churches and chapels in 13,069 stations and outstations 
scattered all over the Empire. Schools to the number 
of 4,857 instructed in the faith and in other useful learn- 
ing 118,013 boys and girls, while 23,380 pupils received 
the Church's fostering care in their orphanages. Streit,^^ 
another trustworthy Roman statistician, informs us that 
three years ago the orders and sisterhoods, roughly 
corresponding to Protestant societies, represented in the 
foreign force comprised eleven of priests, two of lay- 
brothers, and eleven of sisters ; so that one item of sup- 
posed Roman advantage, namely, the multiplicity of send- 
ing organizations, is not so great as would appear. It 
must be added, however, that the Church has so located 
the different orders and so carefully co-ordinated their 
activities, that there is less appearance of disunity among 
them than among Protestants. 

It may be of interest to note some of the items in 
the Roman policy and practice which have characterized 
the missionary efforts of that communion during the 
past three and a quarter centuries. Not all of them have 
been continuous, though there has been less change of 
program among Romanists than among Protestants who 
have labored in China less than one-third as long. 

As they began under Ricci's guidance to seek to in- 
fluence those in high positions, and to hold themselves 
in seclusion from the rabble in dignified aloofness, so 
they have largely continued to the present time. One 
indication of that desire, though it also had other motives, 
is their demand, recognized by the Government in a 

22 According to Streit, Statistische Notizen, p. 14, 659 are 
Europeans. 

23 Statistiche Notizen zum katholischen Missionsatlas, p. 12. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 259 

decree of March 15, 1899, for a status corresponding in 
rank with Chinese officials — bishops being in rank and 
dignity the equals of viceroys and governors, vicars- 
general and archdeacons, of provincial judges, and so 
on down the line. That ruling was extended to Prot- 
estants in accordance with the " most favored nation " 
clause of early treaties, but they refused such question- 
able and compromising honors — honors which the Gov- 
ernment revoked a year or two since in the case of 
Romanists. In their contact with the people they have 
always been more or less open to the criticism of Pere 
Ripa, who long ago wrote to his brethren : 2* "If our 
European missionaries in China would conduct them- 
selves with less ostentation and accommodate their man- 
ners to persons of all ranks and conditions, the number 
of converts would be immensely increased. Their gar- 
ments are made of the richest materials ; they go nowhere 
on foot, but always in sedans, on horseback, or in boats, 
and with numerous attendants following them. With a 
few honorable exceptions, all the missionaries live in this 
manner; and thus, as they never mix with the people, 
they make but few converts." But there is another side 
to this Romanist's criticism. The Chinese are accus- 
tomed to precisely this aloofness; and when, in their 
estimate of the dignity of the teacher and scholar, a 
missionary holds himself cheap in their esteem, he loses 
much influence. Not a few native criticisms of Prot- 
estant missionaries contrast unfavorably their bustling 
activity and disregard of dignity with the reserve and 
seclusion of Catholic fathers. In my own opinion, Prot- 
estants may learn much of their Roman brethren in this 
respect, though they would certainly never go to the ex- 
tremes of 1899 or of Pere Ripa's picture. 

This suggests the question. How, then, do they reach 

2* Williams, Middle Kingdom, Vol. II., p. 305. 



26o CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

so large a number of Chinese and win them to the faith? 
The old method described by the Catholic authority just 
quoted is the main answer i^^ "The diffusion of our 
holy religion in these parts has been almost entirely ow- 
ing to the catechists who are in their service, to other 
Christians, or to the distribution of Christian books in 
the Chinese language." These catechists and lay mem- 
bers of the Church are ever on the watch to find and 
introduce to the missionaries men of prominence, either 
among the crowd or in high places ; and in the privacy 
of an attractive home furnished in orthodox Chinese 
style, where they are treated individually and as guests, 
not a few of them are won for the Church. Another 
large item in Krose's statistics — one never appearing in 
Protestant tables — is the baptism of infants and children 
''in todesgefahr," in articulo mortis. How many such 
are at the point of death brought into salvation and 
within the pale of the Church one cannot say. The 
statistics of last year are not full on this point,^^ but as 
they stand, in China and its dependencies 167,478 mor- 
ibund infant baptisms are reported. A more commend- 
able source of supply is the large number of boys and 
girls in Catholic schools, and especially the 23,380 pupils 
in orphanages in 1907 or 1908. The loving care of the 
Sisters, the emphasis of religion at that susceptible age, 
the provision for a helpful religious life on leaving these 
institutions, such as a Christian marriage for the girls, 
makes the orphange a principal door into the Church. 
Another attraction which Rome has for the Chinese, in 
addition to the stately ceremonies of the sanctuary which 
contrasts favorably as against the barrenness of Prot- 
estant chapels and a somewhat barren service, is the aid 
which catechumens and members can secure in the case 

26 Williams, Middle Kingdom, Vol. II., p. 305. 
26 Katholische Missionsstatistik, pp. 56-58. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 261 

of lawsuits. Missions of every Christian name have re- 
cently been sought for the same reason ; but if one cares 
to consult the records of Chinese courts, it will be found 
that in comparison with the numbers receiving- encour- 
agement in litigation from Roman missionaries, those so 
aided by their Protestant brethren constitute a negligible 
quantity. Moreover, the lack of intimate acquaintance 
of individual inquirers is far greater in the Catholic 
Church than in Protestant missions, so that the chances 
of being misinformed as to the merits of litigants is 
greater in that communion. It must likewise be added, 
though at the risk of the charge of the odium theologi- 
cum, that in the disputes between Chinese Romanists and 
Protestants which have aided the Catholic cause very 
often, their followers have in the great majority of in- 
stances taken the initiative, and been in the wrong. The 
same is true of the charge of proselytism brought by 
each against the other. 

Yet when all has been said, and when the official at- 
titude is acknowledged to be more unfavorable to the Ro- 
manists, mainly because of their participation in politics 
and their use therein by Western diplomats, there re- 
mains the fact that three centuries of Roman missions 
have greatly benefited China. It was through their repre- 
sentatives that the Occident first gained an adequate con- 
ception of China and the Chinese; it was they who first 
instructed the Empire in the Western sciences ; they cast 
the cannon, reformed the calendar, mapped the provinces ; 
they, in early times, had a grip on the Court which no 
mission nor legation has since possessed — a grip which 
was religious enough to win not a few of the Imperial 
family, some of whose members at the time of the prohi- 
bition of 1724 willingly endured exile and chains for the 
sake of their new faith. In works of charity they have 
been eminent ; in the creation of Christian literature they 



2.62 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

were the pioneers ; in scientific ministrations to the Em- 
pire, Roman fathers are still benefactors, as witness the 
work of the eminent meteorologists of Sicawei, the an- 
cestral home of Ricci's first great convert, Paul Hsii. If 
their Chinese followers lack in spiritual strength and in 
Biblical knowledge, remember that they have been left 
largely to the care of catechists with no Bible in their 
hands, and to a regime whose traditions cause the con- 
vert to know far more of the Church's ceremonial than 
he does of its doctrine. As for our Protestant repre- 
sentatives in China, one could wish that they were all 
worthy of the estimate passed upon certain Roman mis- 
sionaries by an early Protestant apostle, Dr. Milne, which 
is approvingly quoted by Dr. Medhurst:^'^ 

" The learning, personal virtues, and ardent zeal of 
some of them deserve to be imitated by all future mission- 
aries; will be equalled by few, and perhaps rarely ex- 
ceeded by any. Their steadfastness and triumph in the 
midst of persecutions even unto blood and death, in all 
imaginable forms, show that the questionable Christianity 
which they taught is to be ascribed to the effect of edu- 
cation, not design, and affords good reason to believe 
that they have long since joined the army of martyrs and 
are now wearing the crown of those who spared not their 
lives unto death, but overcame by the blood of the Lamb 
and the word of His testimony. It is not to be doubted 
that many sinners were, through their labors, turned 
from sin unto holiness ; and they will finally have due 
praise from God as fellow workers in His Kingdom." 

Russo-Greek Missions in China 

When Pope Innocent the Fourth's ambassador reached 
the Mongol Court of Kayuk Khan in 1247, he was as- 
tonished to find that two of the Khan's ministers were 

27 China : Its State and Prospects, p. 203. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 263 

Greek Christians who were maintaining a chapel at royal 
expense. This discovery led to the coming of other 
Christians from Syria, Babylonia and the Aral, the most 
learned of whom became the Khan's physicians and as- 
trologers. Some at least were men of conviction, for John 
of Piano Carpini himself witnessed the execution of 
Michael Chernigoff for refusing to worship the Mongol 
gods.^* Later Mongol histories speak of Russian regi- 
ments, of a Russian camp of 10,000 men, and of Russian 
guards even in Peking. It is also clear that in the four- 
teenth century there were many Greek priests and at least 
one Russian deacon in Mongolia and China.^^ From 
the time of the Mongol overthrow until the advent of the 
Manchus in 1640, Chinese documents are silent as to 
Russia and her religion. 

It is with the capture of Albazin on the Amur River 
by the Manchus, which occurred in 1685, that the Rus- 
sian Holy Orthodox Church became fairly established in 
China. A little party of twenty-five Russians, who had 
the option of going free if they preferred, accepted the 
Emperor's offer to settle in Peking. A priest, Vasilly 
Leontyeff,^" went with them carrying his ikons and his 
Christian faith to China's capital, almost a century after 
Ricci's advent there. Indeed, had it not been for the op- 
position of the Jesuits, Peter the Great would have sent 
an archbishop to Peking. As it was, those Russian 
priests who were allowed to come to the Capital nearly 
cost the Jesuits their posts on the astronomical board,^^ 
and doubtless would have done so had not Romanist in- 

28 Parker, China and Religion, p. 232. 

29 Ibid., p. 233. 

5<> Cordier (The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. III., p. 679), says 
that the date is 1684, the number of Russians thirty-one, and 
the " pope," Maxim Leontieff. 

31 Parker, China and Religion, p. 234. 



264 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

trigues and promises been more subtle than the Russian 
advances. In the years 1727-1734 China built a church 
for the new religionists in the Nan Kuan, or southern 
hostelry, the model being the same as that of the French 
church built by Louis XIV. and the Emperor K'ang Hsi 
for the use of the Jesuits. At the same time it was stipu- 
lated that one lama — they called Russian priests by that 
Buddhistic name, as their vestments and rites closely re- 
sembled those of the Buddhists — and three assistant lamas 
should dwell there permanently at China's expense. 

What the Russian mission was at this time, it has 
since continued to be — primarily a ministry to the de- 
scendants of the original Albazin colony of Russians and 
a chaplaincy to the Russian legation, and in a very 
secondary way a mission to the Chinese. It has had 
among its Archimandrites ecclesiastics of considerable 
erudition, conspicuously Father Hyacinth, one of the 
foremost authorities on China's social life, who took back 
with him to Russia several tons of Chinese books, and 
the even more eminent Archimandrite Palladius, whose 
literary productions are helpful to students of Buddhism 
and Christianity and of the Mongols, though they are 
largely locked up in the Russian tongue. In point of 
winning converts, they probably never enrolled as many 
as a thousand Chinese, and these have been obliged to so 
thoroughly understand their religion that they have come 
in at the rate of not more than a dozen or two a year. 
For their use the Bible and other Christian books have 
been translated into Chinese. Beyond the Capital there is 
little work, though services are held at Tientsin and at 
two towns not far from Peking, It is said that since the 
Boxer uprising, when" most of the old Albazin colonists 
were killed, they have instituted a new policy. They are 
translating fresh Christian books and are extending their 
lines beyond the immediate neighborhood of the Capital. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 265 

If it be supposed that this inactivity, which, after 
more than two centuries of occupation, has led to such 
meager results, is due to inherent apathy of the Holy 
Orthodox Church, the phenomenal success of Arch- 
bishop Nicolai in the Capital of Japan should be remem- 
bered. In a single Hfetime, not yet at its close, he has, 
practically unaided by Europeans, built up a church with 
almost 30,000 members,^^ more than one-half as many 
as the communicants of Protestant missions in Japan, 
with their nearly eight hundred missionaries. The ex- 
planation is rather to be found in Russia's policy in China. 
From Peter's time onward it has been inconsistent with 
that policy to entrust priests with any power which might 
conceivably compromise the State, and the winning of nu- 
merous converts might disturb diplomatic relations. 
There certainly has never yet been a Russian " mission- 
ary disturbance." Indeed, until fifty-one years ago the 
cost of the mission was defrayed by China herself, so 
that friction would mean a division of her house against 
herself. Prof. Parker remarks : ^^ " Down to the very 
last post-* Boxer ' days, no word of reproach for intrigue 
has ever been breathed against a Russian priest, notwith- 
standing the slippery repute of latter-day diplomats." 

Protestant Missions in China 

Turning from the labors of Russian missionaries, the 
least helpful to China's uplifting, we now consider the 
Protestant missionary enterprise, which any impartial 
student of recent progress in that Empire will acknowl- 
edge has been the foremost educational and moral force 
in China's recent surprising evolution. 

As the later history of Roman and Russian missions to 

32 The Christian Movement in Japan, 1908, p. 344. 
'3 China and Religion, p. 241. 



266 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

that Empire was incarnated in Ricci and foreshadowed 
in the fortunes of the Albazin colony, so Protestant mis- 
sions find in their pioneer, Robert Morrison, the embodi- 
ment of their later program. Arriving at Canton one 
hundred and two years ago the seventh of September, 
this English last- and boot-tree maker accomplished, or 
attempted, during the remaining twenty-seven years of 
his life — Ricci's missionary career, by the way, was like- 
wise twenty-seven years — almost all that his successors 
have done after celebrating his centenary there. As I 
stood two years ago in the corner of the little God's-acre 
in Macao, J. read the summary on the flat slab which 
shelters his remains. A representative of the London 
Missionary Society, yet, as Chinese translator of the East 
India Company, earning his bread and additional thou- 
sands of pounds lavished on his varied missionary en- 
terprises, he had in addition done these monumental 
acts. He had translated with the assistance of Milne the 
entire Scriptures into Chinese ; he had prepared unaided 
the most extensive dictionary of the Chinese that has ever 
appeared in any Occidental tongue, comprised in six 
great quarto volumes, containing 4,595 pages ; he had 
published other linguistic helps which greatly aided early 
missionaries to that Empire ; he founded and quite largely 
financed the famous Anglo-Chinese College; he estab- 
lished the forerunner of what might have given the key- 
note of the great Morrison Centenary Conference of two 
years ago, " The Ultra Ganges Missionary Union," 
whose objects were, in part:^* To unite the mission- 
aries of Southeastern Asia and cultivate mutual fellow- 
ship, to strengthen and perpetuate the missions connected 
with the Union, to establish and support a general semi- 
nary, to carry on a periodical work, etc. He was pur- 

34 Mrs. Morrison, Memoirs of the Life and Labours of Robert 
Morrison, D. D., Vol. IL, Appendix, p. I. 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 267 

chasing agent and general adviser for all the missionaries 
of the world. The first work for medical missions in 
China was the result of his investigation into the needs 
of the poor, seconded by a dispensary which he opened 
with a native practitioner at its head and eight hundred 
Chinese medical books as its library. He was chaplain to 
the foreign community and spiritual adviser and pastor 
to a little company of Chinese who dared to come in 
secret to his Bible expositions. If you will read his 
memoirs and his published works, you will find it hard 
to think of any important development of the past half 
century which he had not experimented upon, or thought 
of and discussed as a possibility. 

Dr. Williams, one of the earliest missionaries to go 
from America to China, who knew personally. Dr. Mor- 
rison and his great work, writes : ^^ " As he had 
expressed himself — when leaving New York twenty- 
seven years before — sure that God would make an 
impression on the idolatry of the Chinese Empire, he 
now saw that his work had not been in vain. His work 
had indeed been far different in its details from what 
he had planned in his mind, but the aim had been un- 
wavering and the results promising. . . . His 
name, like those of Carey, Marshman, Judson, and 
Martyn, belongs to the heroic age of missions. Each 
of them was fitted for a peculiar field. Morrison was 
able to work alone, uncheered by congenial companions 
and sustained by his energy and sense of duty, present- 
ing to foreigners and natives alike an instance of a man 
diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. 
His life was mostly passed in the midst of those who had 
no sympathy with his pursuits, but his zeal never abated, 
nor did he compromise his principles to advance his cause. 
His translations and his dictionary have been indeed 

35 Lives of the Leaders of Our Church Universal, pp. 836, 837. 



268 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

superseded by better ones, built on his foundations and 
guided by his experience ; but his was the work of a 
wise master-builder, and future generations in the Church 
of God in China will ever find reason to bless Him for 
the labors and example of Robert Morrison." 

In discussing the work of Protestant missions in China 
we have to do with an enterprise which is tolerably famil- 
iar to you, more so probably than missions in any other 
country, and vastly more so than the work of the Roman 
and Russo-Greek Church discussed at considerable length. 
Permit me, therefore, to remind rather than inform you, 
of a few salient facts in the missionary history of the last 
hundred and two years in China. 

And first, let us look at the three outstanding periods 
of Protestantism's occupation. The years from Morri- 
son's landing until the revision of treaties in 1858-1860 — 
a little more than half a century — constitute the period of 
preparation and entrance. During seven-tenths of this 
time most of the workers had been compelled to labor 
outside China proper in the Malay peninsula and on adja- 
cent islands where Chinese colonists were accessible. The 
few who were on the mainland worked under the greatest 
restrictions, and often in considerable peril. Even after 
an entrance was effected by the treaty of 1842, it was the 
right of a hated might wrenched from unwilling China by 
a great Christian power in so unrighteous a cause as 
opium selling. Only five cities on the coast of the south- 
ern half of the Empire were nominally open, and the 
openness of even these may be judged from the descrip- 
tion of the old Baptist veteran, recently deceased. Dr. 
Ashmore : " We were mobbed in the fu city, mobbed in 
the district cities, mobbed in the large towns. We got so 
used to being pelted with mud and gravel and bits of 
broken pottery that things seemed strange if we escaped 
the regular dose. . . . We went out from our 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 269 

homes bedewed with the tears and benedictions of dear 
ones, and we came back plastered over, metaphorically 
speaking, with curses and objurgations from top to bot- 
tom. ... It went badly with our chapels that 
we rented. They were often assailed ; roofs were broken 
up, doors were battered in, and furniture was carried 
off. There was nothing else to do but to keep at it. Driven 
out of one place, we betook ourselves to another accord- 
ing to instructions. But we did not leave the country as 
the literati desired, and we did not intend to. We wore 
them out, as an anvil sometimes wears out a hammer." 

But during this period much was being accomplished. 
The preparation of grammars, — falsely supposed then 
and by later authors to be helpful in acquiring the lan- 
guage, — dictionaries, and other real linguistic helps; the 
work of Bible translation and the publication and wide 
distribution of Christian books and tracts, one of which, 
Milne's " Two Friends," is still perhaps the most widely 
useful publication of that class of literature; the begin- 
nings of Western Christian education, culminating in the 
Anglo-Chinese College; faithful itineration within the 
prescribed limits, save for the surreptitious peregrina- 
tions of Burns, Medhurst, and others, extending to within 
a hundred miles of Peking in the case of Giitzlaff; an 
intensive work of teaching little groups the Christian re- 
ligion by word and life ; the entering of Dr. Peter Par- 
ker's skillful lancet into the bodies and affections of the 
people in such a way that China has ever since welcomed 
the Christian physician and surgeon — these are some of 
the achievements which should be placed over against the 
pitifully meager showing of converts, who numbered only 
six at the signing of the treaties in 1842, and whose num- 
ber even in i860 averaged only six Chinese believers to 
each of the one hundred and sixty odd male missionaries 
then laboring in the Empire. To be sure this little band 



270 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

was made up of men who had counted the cost and who 
were often stalwarts in the cause. Such a man, for in- 
stance, as Milne's first convert, Liang A-fa, would count 
as a host in any age ; and when we recall that it was 
through him that the leader of the famous Taiping 
Rebellion — a movement which cost the lives of twenty 
millions and which was Christian in its first and hopeful 
stage — derived his early aspirations after a holier life, 
from which, alas ! he later so grievously departed — we 
can see that statistics are often misleading. 

The second period may be roughly called that of con- 
tinuous, though slow, progress, when most of the policies 
to-day obtaining were tried out and improved upon. It 
extends from the throwing open of the entire Empire 
to missionary effort through the treaties of i860, to the 
beginning of China's real awakening, eleven years ago. 
During these thirty-eight years Roman and Protestant 
missionaries went openly and with little opposition to the 
remotest parts of the eighteen provinces. Hence, in- 
stead of Protestantism's five lighthouses on the south- 
eastern coast in i860, in 1898 its representatives were 
holding forth the lamp of knowledge and of life in four 
hundred and sixty-nine main stations, whence they went 
out to regular appointments at 1,969 outstations scattered 
throughout the entire Empire. The one hundred sixty 
odd representatives of nineteen missionary societies had 
increased to 2,458 missionaries of fifty-three boards. 

These nearly four decades saw a very wide develop- 
ment of educational and medical effort, the practical in- 
auguration of woman's work, the establishment of several 
strong churches in place of the isolation of believers in 
earlier days, and the entrance of the principle of the China 
Inland Mission, as well as of the organization itself. 
During the latter part of this period, famines and con- 
sequent relief, administered mainly by missionaries, and 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 271 

the emergence and growth of self-support, were promi- 
nent features of the enterprise. The former did much 
to dispel the old feeling that missionaries were mere 
preaching machines with little heart and this-worldliness 
to their credit; self-support, even though limited in its 
prevalence, sounded the awakening bugle of independ- 
ence and indigenous growth. Yet the greatest gain to 
Christianity of these years was the work of the Christian 
school, as has been made evident since 1900. Even as 
late as 1898, Western education was so belittled and de- 
spised that the Government practically would have none 
of it ; and as altruism does not impel unbelievers to con- 
tribute money and life even to so important an object as a 
great nation's enlightenment — if it is in Asia — Christian 
schools had a monopoly of this indispensable leaven for 
post-Boxer day use. Another agency which came into 
prominence at the end of this period, and in a way oc- 
casioned the rise of New China, is the Christian Litera- 
ture Society, then glorying in the cumbrous name, the 
Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General 
Knowledge. Its publications were eagerly sought after 
especially between 1894-5, the date of China's war with 
Japan, and the coup d'etat of 1898. In the latter year 
the Emperor was eagerly devouring many of its publica- 
tions, — an appetite for Christian books which seems to 
have had its inception in 1894, when China's Christian 
women gave the Empress Dowager a sumptuous, specially 
made copy of the New Testament which strongly at- 
tracted his attention. 

The third period of Protestant missions in China, in 
which the Church is now laboring, began on September 
22, 1898, when in consequence of the coup d'etat Kuang 
Hsii left the throne for virtual, though temporary, con- 
finement. Six days later six martyrs to reform in a more 
sanguinary way followed their Imperial master, protest- 



272 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

ing as the sword deprived them of their heads that though 
the grass might be cut, the roots still remained and would 
shoot forth again in a more favorable time. They were 
true prophets, and the past eleven years have seen more i 

progress than is recorded in all the earlier pages of Chi- 
na's millennial history. 

What has this period meant for our missionaries to that 
land of supreme opportunity? It meant, at the very out- 
set almost, such a baptism of blood as Protestant mis- 
sions have not seen even in sanguinary Madagascar. 
You vividly recall the gruesomely fascinating stories of 
martyrdom that make Boxer year epochal in the Chi- 
nese churches of all the great communions. The siege of 
the legations was only an episode in a movement which 
reproduced in North China the varied details of horror 
visited upon the heroes of the faith as depicted in the 
eleventh chapter of Hebrews. And then we learned for 
the first time in our generation that the blood of faith- 
ful witnesses is at once the seed and the fertilizer of the 
Church. But surely the loss of one hundred thirty-five 
Protestant missionaries and more than fifty of their in- 
nocent children, the slaughter of no one knows how many 
thousands of Chinese Christians, many of whom suf- 
fered untold agonies under the horrid torments of their 
enemies, and the scattering of the Church through nearly 
a year of persecution, must have been an irreparable 
calamity to the Christian cause. 

Yes, and no. Most helpful missionaries and Chi- 
nese Christians can no longer further the work they so 
much loved — at least in the flesh; not a few who bore 
the Christian name did just what you and I might 
have done with similar horrible certainties facing us — 
what the rocklike Peter did with vastly less excuse — 
and this denial saved the lives of witnesses to the sup- 
posed weakness of Christian professions; a natural 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 273 

fear came upon many — and will remain with them 
perhaps till death — of connecting themselves with an 
enterprise which holds faith of more worth than an 
easy life bought by its denial; innumerable difficulties, 
threatening the peace of the Church and the integrity 
of its members, were the aftermath of the year 1900; 
in the new openness to the progress unwillingly thrust 
upon China, temptations to materialism have taken from 
the Church's service some men who were its pillars in 
1899. 

On the other side of the ledger are many compensat- 
ing gains. God was in the siege in Peking, and His right 
hand was manifest in all that northern tier of provinces ; 
and when men and women and children have been forced 
into His very presence and have come to know Him as 
deliverer and friend, higher criticism, lower criticism, 
infidelity, pagan attacks on Christianity's God, and 
every other creature, fail to shake the foundations. 
Again, the Chinese have always been sceptical as to the 
reality of their Christian neighbor's religion. " Is it any 
different after all from our three religions?" A Chris- 
tian student pointing upward with his finger after the 
testimony of the faithful tongue has ceased through its 
excision and just as he draws his last agonized breath ; 
the calm serenity of a Peking pastor as he comes forth 
to meet his doom, dressed in his best garments that he 
may be worthy of his crimson coronet; forgiveness of 
enemies who have slain his wife and little children be- 
fore taking his own head, symbolized by a preacher's 
knees bent in the prayer attitude when his remains were 
disinterred months later; the songs of gladness with 
which even a woman may go to her watery grave; the 
bold confessions of schoolboys under fourteen who 
gladly die rather than deny their loving Saviour ; the un- 
quenchable witness of dying maidens, quite as wonder- 



274 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

ful as those of early Church heroines ; these are famihar 
stories among unbeHeving Boxers, now humble follow- 
ers of the Christ they persecuted in the persons of His 
little ones. Yes, Christianity certainly is a religion of a 
totally different genus. And finally, the necessity of car- 
ing for their own religious life during the year of terror, 
the rehabilitation of half-destroyed church buildings, and 
the care of the unshepherded flock when the storm was 
overpast, together with the new opportunities for earn- 
ing a livelihood in certain sections, have been a very de- 
cided help in the direction of self-support and independ- 
ence. 

Do you ask the characteristic American question, 
Will figures prove progress during these eleven years, 
after such a calamitous sturm und drang period? I re- 
gret to say that I have not completed the statistics for 
the World Missionary Conference for next June, but 
these are the best available and will not fall far short of 
those that I shall have to offer at Edinburgh. I give 
you only a few items from the China tables for the years 
1908 and 1898 with the percentage of gain during that 
decade. 

igo8 1898 Gain 

Number of missionaries.... 4,059 2,458 1,601= 65.1% 
Number of native workers, 

both Sexes 9.784 S.071 4.7i3= 92-9% 

Number of communicants.. 191,985 80,682 111,303=137.9% 
Stations having foreign mis- 
sionaries 527 469 58= 1 2.4% 

Outstations 3,703 1,969 1,734=' 88.1% 

Pupils in day schools 50,910 30,046 20,864=69.4% 

Students in higher institu- 
tions 14,258 4,285 9,973=232.7% 

No comment is needed with regard to these figures, and 
they fairly represent items of advance in other direc- 
tions. 

If you would know the program of our Protestant 



HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS 275 

brothers and sisters in China, you can find it in the il- 
luminating discussions of the great Centenary Confer- 
ence held two years since at Shanghai. The Chinese 
Church stands at the forefront of their deliberations, 
followed by such vital themes as the Chinese ministry, 
education for young men and women, as well as in lower 
schools and for special classes like the blind and the 
deaf and dumb; evangelistic work, which is to be en- 
larged instead of minimized, woman's work in widen- 
ing variety as befits the advent of China's new woman- 
hood, the vastly important topic of Christian literature, 
the perennial problem of ancestral worship, medical mis- 
sions, including China's first insane asylum ; the transla- 
tion and distribution of the Bible and the newer promo- 
tion of its rational understanding and more profitable 
study ; comity and federation, the missionary and public 
questions, and, lastly, important memorials in which the 
united body of missionaries endeavored to influence China 
and Christian lands as well. 

But this does not tell the whole story. Those who, 
like myself, can compare the China of twenty-five years 
ago with the China of this year of grace can scarcely be- 
lieve our senses. Steam navigation extending to shallow 
streams ; railways, telegraph lines, and telephones even 
in the Imperial Capital ; silk filatures and miniature South 
Bethlehems belching out Occidental pillars of smoke ; 
groaning presses pouring forth books by the million and 
periodicals without number; waterworks and sanitation 
for many great cities ; a modern army and a nascent navy 
of Occidental type; old examination halls, where within 
five years as many as 25,000 students have competed for 
degrees in a single center, demolished to make room for 
colleges of the modern sort; hundreds of thousands of 
boys and girls, many in natty uniform, attending the 
lower schools, from the kindergarten up ; opium dens 
under the ban and footbinding about to leave the home ; 



276 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

thousands of students back from Japan and the Occident 
to leaven the new nation ; the tortures of the old law 
court disappearing while new codes are evolving; great 
numbers gathering in orderly lecture halls night by night 
to hear politics, history, education, and reform discussed ; 
a constitutional government promised for a near date — 
and what else? Thank God, in the midst of all this well- 
nigh unbelievable life we see missionaries, not idly gaz- 
ing, but respected and consulted by ofHcials who ten years 
ago would have scornfully refused to receive them, had 
they called. They are more than ever the educators, 
where thoroughness is called for, despite the multitud- 
inous schools established by the Government and the op- 
portunities offered by near-by Japan. When the new day 
dawned, China found herself without modern teachers, 
and as the only source of supply was the mission school 
and college, a surprisingly large proportion of the best 
Chinese teachers are men who have been under Christian 
influence, or are earnest believers, this being preeminently 
true of woman's education. Through the Young Men's 
and Young Women's Christian Associations young dis- 
ciples are being organized into a compact force for na- 
tional regeneration under the guidance of missionaries. 
Assuredly the Protestant missionary is in the kingdom 
for such a time as this, and God is giving him more 
opportunities than he can embrace. And missionaries 
are no longer isolated units, or even segregated de- 
nominationalists. Shanghai, 1907, made unity and co- 
operation the watchword of the hour ; so that henceforth, 
much as one deprecates the martial phase of the figure 
and its numerical falseness, we can truthfully sing of 
the Protestant missionary body in China, 

" Like a mightj^ army, moves the Church of God, 

We are not divided, all one body we, 
One in hope and doctrine, one in charity." 



XV 

THE PROGRESS OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 
IN CHINA 

As I studied the subject suggested to me, I found my- 
self forced to assume that the movement of religious 
education in progress in the Orient is, primarily at least, 
a Christian movement. I mean, that it is the moral and 
spiritual aspect of a culture which had its point of de- 
parture in the impulse of Western, and dominantly of 
Christian, men and institutions. When I first said this 
to myself it made me uncomfortable. I know the Orient 
in some measure. What I know has taught me reverence 
for the character and faiths of the races of the East. 
It seemed to me, for a moment, incongruous that I 
should not take the ethical and spiritual aspect of the 
education 'associated with the religions of the East, as 
my central theme, and deal with the Christian education 
as only the fringe of the problem, since the Christians 
are only the fringe of the population of the nations of 
the East. What right have I, if I would speak with 
insight and in generous spirit, to choose the other 
course? 

Let me explain, then, as briefly as I may. There is 
some inculcation of the tenets of Buddhism and again 
of Confucianism in Japan. But this would be parallel 
to specific instruction in the dogmas and rites of Chris- 
tianity as carried on for convinced Christians among us 
in America. There is instruction in the mysteries of the 
Hindoo faiths for Hindoos. There is at Cairo, and at 
other centers of Mohammedan enthusiasm, a preparation 

277 



278 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

of propagandists for Mohammedanism. There is vast 
expenditure of intellectual energy all over China in the 
teaching of Confucian ethics. And I am very far from 
saying that this will not play a part in the development 
of the character of the China which is to be. 

But all this is specific education in the Confucian sys- 
tem, in Mohammedanism, in Buddhism and the rest. It 
is not education at all, in the larger sense in which we 
use that word. It is not the effort to impart to men the 
whole complex of knowledge on the basis of reason and 
of induction from experience. It is not the effort to 
teach the facts of the sciences of nature and of society, 
the rational criticism of history and literature, the prin- 
ciples of medicine, of economics and government, of 
philosophy and of religion itself, such as we mean when 
we talk about education. It is not the effort to find the 
relation of this knowledge to faith, and to vindicate for 
the ancestral faith its proper place in the midst of this 
knowledge. It is not the effort to appropriate this 
knowledge for the transformation of the faith. 

But that is what we do mean when we speak of Chris- 
tian education. When we speak of Christian education 
as conducted in Clarke University, or in Harvard Uni- 
versity, we do not mean merely instruction in the tradi- 
tions of Christianity. We mean a real education, in 
which the historical fact and the personal experience 
known as religion constitutes an integral element, and 
over which religion exerts a subtle, characteristic, and, as 
we think, immeasurably valuable influence: producing a 
certain kind of educated man, namely, a man who is 
both educated and religious — the one as much as the 
other. 

I am not unaware that there are some among us who 
still think that the zeal for religion is inhibitive of real 
education. We do not believe that for a moment. Nor 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CHINA 279 

am I unaware that there are religious persons among us 
who view real education somewhat askance, and shrink 
from some of its consequences, just as a Mohammedan 
might. But more and more these people hide them- 
selves. The ideal, followed, in the large, in splendid 
fashion, is that which I have endeavored to describe. 

Now if you ask me whether there is any such endeavor 
in the nations of the Orient, which has had its origin in 
the faiths of the Orient, the answer is that there is not. 
There are some persons educated in the schools of West- 
ern learning, which all had their origin in the Christian 
missionary movement in those lands, who are ardent 
for education and not at all zealous for Christianity. 
These see the effects of an education purely secular. 
They would endeavor to imitate the combination, above 
described, of real education with their own faiths. But 
that is an imitative, a derived and secondary movement, 
as, also, the education is almost entirely derived. It is 
a very interesting effort, possibly some day it will be 
potent. But it is following in the wake of what men 
have learned from the Christian West. But, if you ask 
me whether there is any Mohammedan, Buddhist, Con- 
fucian education, original, I mean, and native, which is 
parallel to the Christian education I above described, the 
answer is that there is not. 

I am, therefore, shut up by the facts to the view which 
at first, to me myself, seemed to be a kind of treason to 
a liberal view. If we are going to speak here of educa- 
tion, I am forced to take my departure from a real 
education. It is only very recently that this education 
in a large way has been introduced into China. It may 
be open to us to say that there are more faiths of men 
than one. But it is not open to us to say that there is 
more than one science of the heavens, or more than one 
set of the laws of nature, as these are given us in 



28o CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

physics, or of the fundamental principles of the action 
of men in society, or more than one ordered set of ob- 
servations upon the life of the body such as those upon 
which the practice of medicine among us rests. And if 
we are to speak of religion, we have to take our de- 
parture from that religion which, though it has been 
sometimes justly reproached for its slowness in this re- 
gard, yet has shown immeasurably greater power of 
adaptation to the advance of modern learning than has, 
thus far, at least, any other religion which prevails 
among men. That is the Christian religion. Judaism 
among us has shown the same power of adaptation to 
modern learning. But Judaism is not a missionary reli- 
gion any longer. And Judaism has not made itself 
responsible for the introduction of learning to the East. 
That the beginnings of modern education among the 
nations of the Orient were Christian, as I have implied, 
does not admit of question. The Jesuit fathers, in the 
first generation after Francis Xavier, for their knowledge 
of astronomy, of physics, of the arts and crafts, attained 
a position at the court of the Ming dynasty, and later, 
under the Manchu rule, which made them the honored 
teachers of the leaders of the natives, even among those 
who cared nothing for the Jesuit's faith. The Jesuit 
education suffered in the decline of the Christian in- 
fluence and with the antagonism to things foreign which 
soon set in. But the impulse was never wholly lost. 
The fathers in the greatest observatory in the East, the 
one just outside Shanghai, are the direct inheritors of 
Ricci and Verbiest. The Halle Pietists, who went out 
in the thirties of the eighteenth century to Danish and 
Dutch and EngHsh colonies, were, most of them, univer- 
sity men. They placed Europe under obligations for the 
observations of the East, as truly as they placed the East 
under obligations for the learning and the Gospel of the 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CHINA 281 

West. Morrison at Canton and Macao could teach, 
translate, make grammars and dictionaries, when he 
could not preach. He waited seven years for his first 
convert, but he laid a foundation in knowledge of the 
language and of the people upon which the labors of all 
foreigners in China must rest. You may search the an- 
nals of the British East India Company in its palmy 
days in vain for a trace of the slightest interest in edu- 
cation. It had no more interest in education than it had 
in evangelization, and that was none at all. It was the 
missionaries who, often under the most trying circum- 
stances, had dotted all the land with little schools. One 
reads the life of Alexander Duff and realizes that if he 
had not been the great educational reformer and creator 
in the English empire of India, he would surely have 
been equally great in some like task in Scotland, Amer- 
ica, Australia, or whithersoever he had turned his steps. 
It was an American missionary, Verbeck, who first 
moved the Japanese Government to send youth of family 
and prospects to be educated in Europe and this country, 
with all the consequences that that foreign education of 
Japanese youth has had. It was a boy educated in a 
little missionary school in Kyoto, Neesima, who was so 
fired by what he had learned that he ran away, when it 
was death to be caught leaving his country. He was 
educated at Amherst and Andover, and went back to 
found the college, the Doshisha, which exerts unmeasured 
influence upon the Christian education of Japan to-day. 
Time would fail me to tell of Lockhart, and the begin- 
nings of medical work in the midst of the unspeakable 
miseries of China, and of all the Chinese youth whom 
foreign physicians have trained under the old tutorial 
system, until now, at last, the demand has grown loud 
for a true university school of medicine of the first 
order in some place of vantage in that land. 



282 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Such were typical beginnings of the connection of 
education, philanthropy, charity, reform, with the Chris- 
tian religion in the lands of which we speak. 

Concerning China one may begin by saying that in 
many respects China stands to-day where Japan stood 
fifty years ago. The awakening has come. The realiza- 
tion is abroad that if China is to maintain her national 
integrity at all, she can do so only by pursuing a policy 
exactly the opposite of that policy of exclusion of things 
foreign which has been the policy of a thousand years. 
She must have all that the foreigner has to teach, and 
put herself, in things relating to war and diplomacy, in 
those of administration and commerce, in general educa- 
tion and many other aspects of civilization, squarely upon 
the basis upon which the great powers of the world 
stand. In no other way can she endure the competition, 
or escape virtual subjection or dismemberment. She 
must follow the course which Japan has pursued. Little 
as Chinese love the Japanese, they are willing for the 
time to learn from the Japanese. And, for obvious 
reasons, the Japanese are more than willing to be the 
teachers of the Chinese, although the relations between 
the two powers are likely to be often strained. The 
progress of China will be slower than has been that of 
Japan. The vastness of the territory, the inferiority of 
the means of communication, the lack of race-unity and 
of the intense national sentiment which the Japanese have 
displayed, the fact that there is no common language, the 
practically autonomous rule of the viceroys in their 
several provinces, the fact that the central Government 
is felt by large parts of the Empire to be an alien govern- 
ment, will necessarily have this consequence. Above 
all, there is in China no such minority of the population 
with the instinct of leadership as that which even the 
fallen feudalism furnished to Japan. The instinctive at- 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CHINA 283 

titude of the Chinese is rather that of the repudiation of 
leadership. And the despotism has, until recently, pur- 
sued the policy of eliminating leaders, so soon as these 
began to assume prominence. 

But perhaps the most significant aspect of the present 
situation in China is the most complete discrediting, for 
the time at all events, of the traditional education in 
which the Chinese have been so confident and of which 
they have been so proud. 

We do well to remind ourselves that perhaps there 
never was a nation in which purely intellectual pre- 
eminence, according to the accepted standards, was held 
in such universal esteem as in China. The absence of 
a landed and feudal nobility was made good by this 
leadership of the learned. In China the upper classes 
of public functionaries have for fifteen hundred years 
been chosen by competitive civil-service examinations in 
the branches of learning held in reverence in the land. 
The learned were the aristocrats. Any village boy might 
become the honored man of the village, and put his foot 
on the ladder which led to the highest position in the 
state — if only he learned enough. Though China is, in 
proportion to its population, so poor a country, there has 
always been great wealth in China. But there has been 
no aristocracy of wealth, as we should use that phrase. 
Officials have, indeed, with some consistency, added 
wealth to their learning when office-holding gave them 
chance. The mere possession of wealth was as nothing 
to the possession of knowledge. That the knowledge 
was not generally of the sort which was of specific use 
in administration was indeed true. But that is not now 
my point. This tradition concerning learning, this 
reverence for the intellectual life, is the one thing which 
I here assert. And the effect of this upon Chinese life 
has been exalting. The ambition for education has been 



284 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

wonderful. The labor of youth in pursuit of education 
was amazing. The attainments of men, particularly the 
feats of memory, were nothing less than stupendous. I 
have heard it said by those- who know China that the 
colossal mental toil of the scholar-class, being the sort 
of toil that it was, has actually dulled the perception and 
broken the power of intellect of some men of this type. 

But the attainments were, as I have intimated, gener- 
ally of the sort that yielded little for the practical life. 
They had almost no application to the technique of ad- 
ministration. They led to no discoveries, or to no new 
applications of discoveries when these had been chanced 
upon. It bound men to the old round instead of giving 
them keenness to set forth in new ways. To say that 
the civil-service examinations of a nation demanded 
knowledge of the morals of Confucius and of the poetry 
of the golden age, of the opinions of the commentators 
upon literature, and never touched on sciences or arts or 
trades, never asked questions about principles of taxation, 
theory of government, languages, geography or history, 
is almost to turn the thing into ridicule. That a man 
could be a viceroy, practically absolute in power, in a 
province periodically inundated, who knew nothing about 
engineering, and who could not in the wide realm lay 
hands on a man who did know anything about engineer- 
ing, has in it something pathetic. One is fain to say that 
the contrast of all this labor of the mind with the suffer- 
ings of hundreds of millions, through conditions which 
could easily have been remedied by a little application of 
the mind, is perhaps the most extraordinary contrast 
which the Chinese Empire presents. 

The leaders of China, and the people, in no small part, 
have discovered this state of things. They have turned 
against the old system of education, as it were, in a fury 
of resentment for its practical ineffectiveness, despite 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CHINA 285 

all the toil and honor given it. No one of us could 
speak of the old regime with more biting ridicule than 
does the Chinaman himself. To us the thing arouses 
pity, but his heart is on fire. The spirit of the practical 
possesses him. And the Chinese is a very practical man. 
You might not think so from what I have just said. 
But he is. That he could be so practical, so outward and 
present in his view of things, so little of an idealist and 
dreamer as he seems to be, and that he could, neverthe- 
less, so long have endured and reverenced an education 
which led to so little that was outward and practical — 
that constitutes one of the enigmas of which China, to 
the mind of an Occidental man, is full. 

For the present, therefore, the Chinese have overturned 
the old system as a thing disgraced. Edict after edict 
has gone forth since 1898, inaugurating revolution in this 
sphere. The queer little sheds, in rows of hundreds, in 
which the candidates used to wet their brushes and rub 
their shaven heads to think what Mencius had said, in 
order that they might get petty posts of chance to 
squeeze the rice transportation up the Pei Ho from 
Tientsin, are rotting. The children in China will soon 
begin to wonder what they had been for. The blue- 
mantled scholar, now in middle life, must look out upon 
the ruins of his world much as the inhabitant of Mes- 
sina looks upon the new Pompeii which Aetna has just 
made. Young China cries for the sciences of nature 
and society, for the technique. of industries and crafts. 
Young China knows that the wealth of China is as noth- 
ing compared with what will be the wealth of China 
when the youth of China who know how to get that 
wealth from fields, mines, factories and commerce, have 
but had the time to be bred up. He proposes that the 
foreigner shall no longer get that wealth as heretofore. 
An old China merchant in Boston told me a few days 



286 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

ago, that in his youth it was the normal thing for a New 
England man to spend five to eight years in China, and 
then to retire, his fortune made. That has already 
ceased. It will soon be difficult to be believed. Young 
China calls for the knowledge of military and naval mat- 
ters, that it may no longer be a prey to invasion and 
sign away its national soul in treaties under the muzzle 
of European guns. Young China asks for sciences of 
government and theories of taxation, principles of ad- 
ministration, to put an end to the reign of universal 
graft. It demands constitution, codes, laws which will 
put an end to the curse of extra-territoriality. It de- 
mands modern languages, particularly English, which is 
everywhere now the language of banking and of trade. 

It demands everything at once — or nearly everything. 
For it is not just now demanding religious education. 
One of the things which gives us food for reflection in 
this abandonment of the ancient education is just this, 
that, after all, Confucianism was a moral system, though 
hardly a religion, as has often been said. But it was a 
system of ethics. It dealt with conduct and life. It 
taught character. And no one can live in China without 
realizing that the people have character. Everywhere 
you go, and from the highest to the lowest, you are im- 
pressed by it. They have had ideals of life and stood 
for them. Of course there are criminals, but then so 
there are in Boston. I know that the governing classes 
are bottomlessly corrupt. But let us not forget Pitts- 
burg and San Francisco. And the corruption in China 
is so antique and universal that the true thing to say 
about it may be that it has not been drawn within the 
range of their moralizing, as slavery had not come within 
the range of the moralizing of George Washington. I 
know that they are largely polygamists — that is, those are 
who can afford it. But then, some things are worse than 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CHINA 287 

acknowledged and public polygamy, and one of these is 
unacknowledged and private polygamy. I say the people 
have character, they have integrity, they have honor, they 
have gentleness, they have love of peace. They love 
children and home and fathers and mothers, and know 
much about happiness, though not much about comfort. 
The mqst of what they know in these regards they owe 
to Confucianism. And if in the future they know more 
about comfort, they may know less about happiness, like 
some of the rest of us. Particularly will this be the case 
if, having repudiated the ethics of Confucius, as not lead- 
ing to comfort, they neither recall him nor put anything 
in his place. I have used the word practical. But noth- 
ing is more practical than morals. And this is a lesson 
which the Chinese may be in the way of learning. 
Deeper spirits among the Chinese themselves are now 
profoundly concerned at the lowering of the moral tone 
of China through the new ideas which now prevail from 
the breaking up of the old ties, without the forming, as 
yet, of new ones. If we could get to the bottom of it, I 
suspect that we should find that the decree of 1906, con- 
ferring divine honors on Confucius and commanding his 
worship — an edict which many Chinese themselves ridi- 
cule as utterly inconsistent with Confucianism — is an 
effort to regain in the sphere of religious sentiment that 
influence which Confucius has lost in the sphere of 
ethical instruction. If that is the right interpretation, 
then this curious anachronism by which a government 
decrees a man a god is, at all events, a very interesting 
thing. 

But for all purposes except those of religious and 
moral instruction, schools, colleges and universities, 
schools and colleges for women, public instruction even 
down to the primary grades and kindergartens, are 
springing up on every hand. Foreign learning is every- 



288 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

where the vogue. These institutions are supported by 
the state and from private munificence. There seems to 
be plenty of money, although for four hundred millions 
of people, in the end it will take a good deal. But there 
is a fatal paucity of teachers. How should it be other- 
wise? The old system bred none of the sort who are 
now in demand. The new system must have time to 
breed up its own. The Japanese teachers in China are 
declared to be generally of poor quality, and distrusted. 
The truth is, the demand is still too great at home. The 
Americans and Europeans are only a drop in the bucket ; 
though if the youth who haunt our teachers' agencies 
would only make up their mind to spend even a few ad- 
venturous and interesting years in a foreign land, they 
might just now almost have their choice of subjects and 
location, and earn a good salary. The good of them 
might do a vastly important work. I say even only a 
few years, because most of the instruction is done in 
English, so impossible is it to get those who know 
Chinese, and, incidentally, so eager are the Chinese youth 
to learn English as well. 

But here lies the great opportunity of our missionary 
schools. For a half century there has been more or less 
teaching done by the missions. There are missionary 
colleges, and a whole system of Christian preparatory 
institutions, and schools both for boys and girls, up and 
down the land. There are theological seminaries and 
medical schools. There are two hundred thousand Prot- 
estant communicants in China, and it is claimed that 
there are a half million Roman Catholics. Mission 
schools would have had some pupils from the families 
of the Christian Church. But the Chinese converts have 
been the great proportion of them, poor. But the num- 
ber of children of non-Christian parents who attended 
these schools has always been very small. What should 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CHINA 289 

a Chinese youth have done with a Western education, so 
long as the old system held unbroken sway? It is re- 
markable only that the mission schools were so numer- 
ous and so good as they were. But now, as in a moment, 
the attitude of the Chinese is changed. The young men 
who can do the things which the Government and the 
corporations now demand, are those who have graduated 
from the Christian schools. They are for the most part 
Christian youth, because, otherwise, they would not ten 
years ago have graduated from those schools. The edu- 
cation which ten years ago was nearly useless, now com- 
mands the highest places and can dictate its price. It 
is said that the postmasters under the postal system 
which the maritime customs is raising up are, almost 
to the proportion of one-half, throughout the whole area 
yet covered by that system, Christian men, though the 
Protestant Christians (and there are ten, only, missions 
in which there has been much care of education) are 
hardly a tenth of one per cent, of the population of the 
land. As for teaching, youth whom the mission schools 
thought quite incompetent are called to positions of a 
responsibility which may easily prove far beyond their 
powers. The mission schools which ten years ago were 
small and struggling, to-day could be filled with the best 
youth of the land, had they ten times the accommodation 
which they have. In the Peking Christian girls' schools, 
girls of princely Manchu families are kept on a waiting 
list, when ten years ago the daughters of peasants re- 
ceived everything gratis if they would come at all. It 
will not always be thus. But, I repeat, it is a great op- 
portunity while it lasts. 

Nor can this state of things be said to be entirely due 
to the fact that the Christian schools furnish an educa- 
tion of the desired sort and of a quality far better than 
that which, as yet, is generally given in the state school 



290 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

or by the endowed schools. In part also, Chinese par- 
ents of standing appreciate the moral perils of this period 
of transition through which their country is passing. 
They understand that the hold of the old moral teaching 
is, whether rightly, or only wrongly and unfortunately, 
weakened, and they are glad to have their youth come 
under the influence for character which the Christian 
schools represent. It is not necessarily true that they 
wish them to become Christians, though some will even 
go so far as to say that they are willing to take the 
risk of that. Two nieces of a former high Chinese 
official well known in Washington were sent two years 
ago to a mission school. This man has defended Con- 
fucianism in a public address in this country, and has 
said things against Christian missions some of which 
were probably true. He has made remarks about 
the morality of the United States, in spite of Christianity, 
which were beyond any question true. Yet he said that 
he did not care if the girls did become Christians, so long 
as they were under the moral influence of the lady 
whom he named, who conducted that school. The 
significance of this situation could hardly be overrated. 
One may speak in absolute respect and reverence of the 
influence which Confucianism has exerted upon the char- 
acter of the Chinese in times past. I do not see how 
anyone can help doing this, though he may also see its 
defects. But he must recognize that for the moment its 
influence, especially upon that part of the vast popula- 
tion in whose hand is the future, is disastrously impaired. 
He may hope that that influence will be recovered ; that 
Confucianism will yet show that power of adaptation to 
modern life and culture which, as yet, it does not show. 
He may believe that it will be improved by its contact 
and competition with Christianity, as religions do gain 
by their contacts one with another. All this may be true. 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CHINA 291 

Yet it remains that the power of Confucianism, as the 
source of moral education in China, for the present, at 
all events, seems broken. 

But it must be remembered that Confucianism is not 
a religion in the same sense with Christianity or even 
with Mohammedanism. It is on its own showing and 
in the experience of many of its devoted adherents a 
system of ethics rather than a religion. There is no 
reason why Confucian elements should not enter largely 
into the new and original Chinese interpretation of 
Christianity which we must have before Christianity can 
mean much to the Chinese. Elements of Hellenic moral 
speculation entered into the classic interpretations of 
Christianity which became authoritative after the patris- 
tic age. On the other hand, Confucianism might be in- 
dependently deepened, widened and transformed by the 
truly religious element which is so strong in Christianity. 
The recovery of the power of Confucianism may be 
imagined in this way. For no person of insight imagines 
that Christianity can ever become the religion of China 
in the Western forms in which missionaries have brought 
it to the Chinese. 

Taoism in China is in much the same position with 
Shintoism in Japan. It has nothing to do with educa- 
tion. In so far as it is a nature-religion, it can have noth- 
ing to do with education. So soon as education has any- 
thing to do with it, it will vanish away. 

And concerning Buddhism so generous a spirit and 
so true a scholar as Estlin Carpenter has said : " It has 
profoundly transmuted the ancient popular religion. It 
has had its areas of reform, its protests against un- 
spiritual worship, its efforts at rationalism and simplicity, 
its attempts to realize a philosophic mysticism. But it is 
stricken now with a colossal decrepitude. Other forces 
have entered the field. Buddhism and Western culture 



292 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

cannot be maintained together. The Western scholar will 
study Buddhism for its profound intellectual and moral 
interest. He will investigate its origin and its trans- 
formations. He will admire much of its ethical teach- 
ing. He will follow its efforts after social and political 
reform, and its splendid enterprises of apostolic toil. 
But he will perceive that its view of life cannot be com- 
bined with modern knowledge. He will be convinced 
that the future of religion — if he admits that it has a 
future — must be sought elsewhere." 

Mohammedanism is a great and growing power in 
China. But it is no less an alien faith in China than is 
Christianity. But upon the particular point of its power 
of adjustment to modern culture, and of assimilation to 
that which seems to be the coming universal basis of 
civilization, it can hardly be said to hold a comparison 
with Christianity. Recent events in Turkey raise this 
question in most interesting form. Can Islam be so trans- 
formed as to become, or remain, the religion of a mod- 
ernized, civilized, educated Ottoman state? So good an 
observer of the Moslem world as Lord Cromer denies 
that the combination is ever in Aisabia or Africa impos- 
sible. However that may be in the lands where Islam 
is native, there is no reason to suppose Mohammedanism 
will thus transform itself in China. 

When all is said it would appear that it is the Chris- 
tian movement in China which must be looked to, and 
which by many of the Chinese themselves is now looked 
to, as the source of that ethicizing and spiritualizing of 
the education which, for its own sake, is so ardently 
sought. That education is in resistless advance. It 
must work incalculable change, and without any ethiciz- 
ing and spiritualizing element, it must be of mingled 
good and evil just as the same education, without moral- 
izing influence, has so clearly been with us. Again let 



RELIGIOUS EDUCATION IN CHINA 293 

me ask you to observe how far I am from saying that 
Christianity is in the Celestial Kingdom the only moraliz- 
ing force. Such an assertion would seem to me to be 
the essence of bigotry. But I am profoundly moved as 
I perceive, with new clearness, how much Christianity 
stands in the forefront, how transcendent an opportunity 
is given it, how great a responsibility is laid upon it, and 
how great would be the disaster should it fail. 

But the ease and naturalness of the role which Chris- 
tianity in China is now called upon to play, may be 
gathered from the fact that the Chinese man has char- 
acteristically no notion of the exclusiveness of any one 
religion. Not merely is he used to the fact that there 
are many religions, each with many adherents in his own 
land. But, more than that, he has looked upon them all 
with a certain expectancy, asking for the particular 
virtue each may have, and seeking to appropriate those 
virtues to himself. A great lesson is the Chinese man 
to most Christians here. It has been said that he is a 
poor Chinaman who has not already the elements of 
three religions in him. He would never surprise him- 
self if he saw what he needed in a fourth. There are 
probably few families in China which do not, on occasion, 
practice Buddhist rites. The state religion is Confucian- 
ism, and there are few men the law of whose conduct is 
not Confucian maxim. The masses of men join every- 
where in Taoist practices, and even the more learned 
have Taoist superstitions at the back of their minds. 
One recalls that charming tale from the " Travels " of 
the Abbe Hue. " When strangers meet," he says, " it 
is our custom for each to ask his neighbor : ' to what 
exalted religion do you belong ? ' The first is perhaps 
a Confucian, the second a Taoist, the third a disciple of 
the Buddha. Each of them begins a panegyric on the 
religion not his own. After which they repeat in chorus : 



294 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

' Religions are many. Reason is one. We are all 
brothers.' " The Christian will need only to see the good 
in other religions to have that in his own perceived. He 
will need only in himself to possess, to illustrate, to im- 
part the superior good, to have that good received and 
gratefully adopted. But a religion which intends to 
make earnest with the fiction of its own exclusiveness, is 
an affront to the noble courtesy of the Chinese man. A 
form of Christianity which lacks power of adaptation to 
modern culture, and does not mean to be the spiritual- 
izing power of the newest civilization, and of that which 
will be newer than the present new, had better stay in 
America, where its traditions may keep it alive for a 
while. In old China there is no such tradition. In new 
China there will be still less place for it. 



XVI 

THE CHINESE IN HAWAII— AN EXAMPLE OF 
SUCCESSFUL ASSIMILATION 

Introduction 

Geographically and politically, Hawaii has little in 
common with the peoples who are the subject of study in 
this conference. The map shows that Hawaii is in the 
center of the North Pacific, but she faces towards the 
Occident. All of her political affiliations are with the 
United States, of which she forms an integral part. 

In comparison with India with her starving people, 
with the Philippines whose future rises to vex us, with 
China and her awakening millions, with bewildered Korea 
governed by an alien hand, and even with Japan who 
leads the Orient, Hawaii has no problems. Even though 
the little territory with her 170,000 people has approxi- 
mately 72,000 Japanese and 18,000 Chinese as well as 
many Koreans, Indians and Filipinos, more than 55 per 
cent. Orientals, there is no race question. 

Hawaii, rather, is a laboratory in which experiments 
in race combinations and development are being con- 
ducted on a large scale and in a variety of ways. It may 
be said that these experiments, carried on as they are by 
that master of science — Nature — have been most success- 
ful. Perhaps Hawaii's place in this conference is to 
call attention to the solution — successful solution as we 
think — of some of the problems which are now harassing 
our statesmen and administrators in the Philippines. 
Certainly a study of the methods and the results of our 

295 



296 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

treatment of the Oriental would throw a strong light on 
any policy which has in view the " benevolent assimila- 
tion " of any people. 

This paper deals only with the Chinese, the conditions 
of whose residence in the Islands have made a study of 
them particularly profitable. They have been in the 
Islands in considerable numbers for about a half cen- 
tury; in many cases, though possibly not so many as we 
would wish, they brought their wives with them, thus 
establishing families ; their children have attended the 
schools in large enough numbers and for a sufficient 
length of time to give a basis for a satisfactory judg- 
ment of them; and finally for about ten years further 
additions to their numbers from the home country have 
been prohibited by Federal law, so that there is a happy 
absence of those disturbances caused by the influx of 
newcomers who not only bring raw material into the 
crucible, but also help to keep alive the customs and 
traditions of the fatherland. 

Hawaii affords a good example of the " family of 
races." Here on these small islands of the sea are gath- 
ered in numbers, people from more than a dozen differ- 
ent nationalities. Here not only do they live quietly and 
happily without any " burning issues," but also they give 
in their family life sociological and ethnological sugges- 
tions which the wisest may profitably study. It is pos- 
sible that, in spite of her diminutive size and the con- 
sequent smallness of the numbers of people who may be 
studied, Hawaii may have a lesson for the nations to 
heed. 

First Coming 

It is probable that there were Chinese in Hawaii 
in very early times. In Vancouver's Voyages there is 
mention of an American trader named Metcalf who in 



THE CHINESE IN HAWAII 297 

the Eleanor, with a crew of fifty-five, forty-five of whom 
were Chinese, touched at Maui and Hawaii in 1789. In 
Vancouver's memoirs is also a record of one China- 
man among the foreigners in the Islands in 1794. Eight 
years later in 1802 came a Chinaman with a stone sugar 
mill, the farsighted forerunner of a great industry. His 
attempt to establish a sugar plantation was a failure 
largely owing to the unfavorable natural conditions of 
the Island of Lanai, where he first set up his mill. 

But the earliest connection of importance between 
these small islands of the sea and the great Empire came 
through trade. Hawaii sent the sandalwood, much 
sought for by the fastidious Oriental, and received in 
return the more necessary furniture and clothing. Tan 
Heong San — sandalwood country — as the Chinese called 
Hawaii, had many attractions for them. They found 
many products which had a ready sale in China; they 
saw much land that they could cultivate, for the taro 
patches of the native Hawaiian were admirably adapted 
to the raising of rice. 

Up to 1852, fifty-five Chinese had come to the Islands; 
some of these intermarried with the natives ; some had 
been admitted to citizenship possibly in large measure 
due to the law which forbade the natives to marry for- 
eigners who had not taken the oath of allegiance and 
declared an intention to remain on the Islands per- 
manently. Before 1865 the number of Chinese had not 
largely increased, and this number fluctuated consider- 
ably, for, while there were a few arrivals, a relatively 
large number were among those who went to California 
in 1849-1850 in search for gold. 

But in 1865 as a result of the growth of the sugar 
industry and the demand for labor, Dr. William Hille- 
brand was commissioned as Royal Commissioner of Im- 
migration and sent to China and the East Indies in- a 



298 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

search for laborers. After an exhaustive study of the 
sources of labor supply, Dr. Hillebrand made most of 
his selections at Hong Kong. He used great care in 
picking eligible laborers and went so far even as to try 
to learn the character and fitness of each individual 
whom he was to bring to Hawaii. As a result, in 
September, 1865, 199 men, 43 women and 8 children 
arrived at Honolulu as agricultural laborers. As far as 
is known, this is the first assisted immigration of Chinese 
to Hawaii. As, in attempts to solve the ever-vexing 
labor problem in Hawaii, the policy of assisted immigra- 
tion has been carried to an extent hardly attempted in 
any other place, it may be interesting to note in passing 
the terms on which these original immigrants came. 
They were to have free passage from China ; four dollars 
per month wages ; comfortable lodgings, food, clothing 
and free medical service and Sunday and three Chinese 
holidays. They were bound to service for five years, but 
at the expiration of that time they were free to return 
to China or to stay under a new contract or leave the 
plantation. It was understood that under the Hawaiian 
laws the immigrant laborer might appeal to the courts 
if the employer treated him with cruelty and that he 
was in a sense under the protection of the government 
which had been instrumental in bringing him to the 
Islands. 

Numbers 

From these beginnings the Chinese population grew 
until the census of 1900 recorded 25,762. Up to 1900, 
this growth had been quite steady. In 1866, there were 
370; in 1872, 1,938; in 1884, 17,937; in 1890, 15,301. 
From the figures of 25,762 for 1900 there has been a 
steady decline in the last decade. An unofficial count 
taken for the use of the United Chinese Society, June 



THE CHINESE IN HAWAII 299 

30, 1903, found only 21,961. The estimate of the num- 
ber of Chinese now in Hawaii, based on the most reli- 
able sources of information, in the Governor's report for 
1908, is only i8,ooo. This decrease is due to the ex- 
clusion of Chinese by Federal law and to departures, 
particularly of the older Chinese. From 1900 to 1908 the 
number of Chinese children in the schools increased from 
1,289 to 2,797. Unless then there is a large increase in 
the number of those who go home to China, which is not 
to be reasonably expected, the number of births will off- 
set the departures. 

Economic Value 

The Chinaman's economic value has always given him 
a privileged position in Hawaii which his obedience to 
law, adaptability to existing conditions and probity in 
business have done much to sustain. He has always had 
a high place as a laborer on the plantations. In the low- 
lands and the valleys he reclaimed unproductive lands 
and made them yield incomes to the native owners and 
taxes to the government. He converted into rice fields 
the taro lands, gradually going into disuse through the 
disappearance of the native. He brought with him a 
constitution inured to this arduous labor in the wet rice 
fields. He used at first the caribou and primitive in- 
struments of agriculture of his native land, but these 
among the more progressive are giving way to modern 
methods. The dilapidated fish ponds he restored. He 
established small stores both in the remote and in the 
settled districts and gained the confidence and the trade 
of the natives. 

This picture of industrious contentment has made 
many a visitor from California exclaim over the contrast 
between the Chinese in Hawaii and the kind that has 
settled in California, But the man is the same, often 



300 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

coming from the same village and district, and even from 
the same family, but the difference is that the best has 
been drawn out in Hawaii, while the sister Common- 
wealth, by repression and cruelty, has developed his baser 
qualities. While he has been subject to revilings and 
physical abuse in California, in Hawaii he has had op- 
portunities for labor and self-improvement, spiritually 
and intellectually, as well as materially and financially. 
The generous treatment given him by missionaries in 
private schools was continued in the public schools. 
Under conditions favorable to his best development, he 
has lived on terms of pleasant amity, both receiving and 
giving in return. 

Under their diligent and shrewd management, the rice 
industry prospered. Many Chinese became wealthy 
planters. At one time more than 5,000 of this nationality 
were at work in the rice fields. But the industry fell on 
evil days. Rent went up and owing to the unwillingness 
of the Japanese to eat any but the Japan-grown rice, the 
demand went down. 

Nearly all the vegetables are grown by the Chinese. 
The " pake " vegetable man, carrying an almost unbeliev- 
ably heavy load on his yoke and pole with his bobbing 
and swaying motion, comes every morning to the kitchen 
door to the great convenience of the house-wife. He has 
made the ideal servant, and now in the days of the less 
reliable Japanese house servants, those families that still 
retain their faithful old Chinese cook are much envied 
by their neighbors. 

The plantations have been quite generally strong in 
their expressions of approval of the Chinese as a laborer. 
He is steady and reliable. In this as in everything else, 
he is absolutely honorable. He seldom throws up a con- 
tract however unprofitable. On account of their gre- 
garious instincts, they are willing to live in barracks, 



THE CHINESE IN HAWAII 301 

roomy but lacking in domesticity, which other laborers 
refuse to have. But now not more than 5,000 Chinese 
work on the plantations. They have gone into other 
labor or have left the Islands. 



Restriction 

In the '8o's, doubts as to the wisdom of the continued 
large importation of Chinese arose in the minds of some 
who were made apprehensive by the diminution of the 
native population and by the small number of resident 
whites. In 1887 a law was passed, subsequently 
amended in 1888, which permitted the admission only of 
(i) Chinese women and children with relatives in 
Hawaii, clergymen, merchants and teachers residing in 
the Islands. (2) Under a special permit, merchants and 
travelers who were allowed to remain six months under 
bonds. (3) A limited number of field-hands and 
domestic servants who had a fixed residence and whose 
employers deposited a certain portion of their wages each 
month with the government to make up a fund for their 
return passage after the expiration of their contract. 
The number of Chinese, however, in spite of these regu- 
lations, increased, absolutely and relatively to the Japa- 
nese, up to 1896. By the Constitution of 1887, Chinese 
were prohibited from voting for members of the Legisla- 
ture. 

By the organic act for Hawaii, Congress applied to 
the territory the Chinese exclusion act as well as the 
Federal immigration and contract labor laws. On ac- 
count of the difficulties and expense of importing 
Caucasians from Europe under the labor law, there was, 
especially a few years ago, a very strong feeling in 
Hawaii that the planters should be allowed to import 
Chinese field-hands, for agricultural purposes only, under 



302 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the restrictions imposed by the local laws of 1887-8, It 
was urged that this would not affect the mainland in the 
least, as no Chinese are allowed to land there anyway, and 
that it would benefit Hawaii without injury to any other 
commonwealth. This was favored by the planters who 
would gain financially by the cheap labor, and who 
needed the presence of other laborers to discipline the 
assertive and somewhat unmanageable Japanese laborer 
and by those who reasoned that cheap field labor, bring- 
ing prosperity to the chief industry, would bring pros- 
perity to the Islands as a whole ; it was opposed by some 
natives and by some whites who were opposed to any 
measure to increase the Oriental population, by the 
artisans and mechanics, many of them on principle, and 
all on the fear that the coming of the Chinese would re- 
lease Japanese at work on the plantations who would in- 
crease the competition in trades and semi-skilled occupa- 
tions with the cheap-working and cheap-living Asiatics. 

A compromise has been suggested in the shape of a 
law which would admit a restricted number of Chinese 
for a limited term of years as field-hands, and which 
would at the same time restrict the competition of 
Orientals with white men in certain skilled occupations 
on the plantations. It is pointed out that this arrange- 
ment, by reducing the number of Japanese laborers, 
would also reduce the number of Japanese in secondary 
pursuits as store-keepers, mechanics and similar occupa- 
tions, while the Chinese secondary population would not 
increase. 

But the difficulties of framing any law that would be 
satisfactory to both parties, and the practical impos- 
sibility of getting such a law passed by Congress, are now 
generally recognized. As far as inducing labor to come 
to Hawaii is concerned, the whole attention of the Ter- 
ritory and of the planters is directed towards getting 



THE CHINESE IN HAWAII 303 

Filipinos or white laborers from Europe or Asia who will 
become " Americanized." 



Sociological Influences and Results 

As members of the community, receiving impressions 
from the religious and social forces and reacting upon 
them, the Chinese in Hawaii are an interesting study. 
The experience of the island Territory has been so dif- 
ferent from that of California, whose vigorous denuncia- 
tions of the Chinaman have so molded opinions of him 
quite generally, that this experience is worth giving, for 
it puts the much-abused Celestial in a pleasanter light. 
It has to be remembered too that the proportion of 
Chinese in Hawaii has always been larger than in Cali- 
fornia, for, while the Chinese in California probably never 
exceeded 100,000, which made their proportion very 
small in that populous State, Hawaii with her 170,000 
people has had 27,000 Chinese at one time. A few years 
ago when there were about 10,000 Chinese in San Fran- 
cisco, that hot-bed of Chinese opposition, there were only 
149 Chinese children in the public schools. 

A well-known Californian voices these practices and 
characteristics of the Chinese as grounds for their ex- 
clusion : 

" Traffic in human flesh, domestic life which renders 
a home impossible, a desire for only that knowledge 
which may be at once coined into dollars, a contempt for 
our religion as new, novel and without substantial basis, 
and no idea of the meaning of law other than as a regu- 
lation to be evaded by cunning or by bribery." 

This view of him is not borne out by a study of him 
in Hawaii, where he has had the opportunity to develop 
and encouragement, born of kindness and consideration, 
in the development. Hawaii flatters herself that she has 



304 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

formed the correct estimate of this mysterious man from 
the East. 

It is doubtful if the Chinese traffic more in human 
flesh than other nationahties. Americans do not have 
far to go to find illustrations of the sale of human beings, 
body and soul, in a nefarious traffic. The Chinese may 
not thus be freely indicted. It is certain that other 
nationalities have shown in Hawaii greater looseness of 
"living. Chinese women in general bear a reputation for 
strict virtue and chastity which is hardly approached by 
any similar nationality. 

It cannot be denied that he lives by himself. But he 
has been driven to it in self-protection. Wherever he 
goes he is greeted with jeers if not with stones. One 
of the first sights that I saw on my first visit to Worcester 
several years ago was a crowd of boys chasing and 
stoning a fleeing Chinese laundryman. Convenience too 
demands that they live together until they can become 
fully acquainted with Occidental ways. 

In Honolulu a part of the city is known as Chinatown, 
where are most of the Chinese stores and lodging houses. 
But it is unlike the Chinatown of San Francisco. The 
homes of the Chinese are scattered over the city and 
country. A dip into statistics shows that by the census 
of 1900 for the 25,762 Chinese in Hawaii, there were 
3,247 homes, of which 393 or 12 per cent, were owned. 
There were 6,482 homes for Caucasians, with 1,840 or 
28 per cent, owned. This showing compares favorably 
with that of most foreign nationalities in this city or 
any other city. Many of these homes are mere shacks, 
but many of them, on the other hand, are among the best 
in the Islands. In fact, the Chinaman, has a reputation 
as a home-builder and provider that makes him a popular 
husband among the Hawaiian women. 



THE CHINESE IN HAWAII 305 

The marriage records show that he is cosmopoHtan in 
his marital relations. He has married into many nation- 
alities. The children of the Chinese-Hawaiian marriages 
seem to combine the industry, frugality and persever- 
ance of the Chinese stock and the good nature and 
physical characteristics of the Hawaiian. They rank 
high among mixed peoples. The Chinese parent stock 
noticeably predominates. 

The pure-blooded Chinese children have made fine 
records in school and labor. The Chinese parents want 
their children to have the very best education that they 
can afford, and the children of the poorest families are 
diligent searchers after knowledge. They show such in- 
dustry and perseverance in their study as to place them 
in the front rank of pupils in the schools. Teachers are 
unanimous in praise of them. The chief difficulty is to 
restrain them to such moderation in their study as good 
health requires. They lack possibly in originality. 

Statistics, showing 2,096 pure-blooded Chinese pupils 
and eight teachers in the public schools and 701 pupils 
and 12 teachers in the private schools, do not begin to 
tell the story. Its full significance is appreciated only 
when there is complete understanding of their great 
desire for knowledge, for which they will make any 
sacrifices, and their ambition for higher education, which 
is a goal calling forth almost superhuman efforts. The 
schools give every encouragement to those who have 
ability and the means to advance. The Mills Institute, 
a missionary school for Orientals, has had a large in- 
fluence which it hopes to continue and expand under the 
name of the Mid-Pacific Institute, in a new building now 
being erected for it. Other private and church schools 
have had large numbers of Chinese. Another significant 
factor which has been potent is the Chinese Students' 



3o6 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Alliance, an organization of Chinese young men and 
women who have attended schools of high school grade, 
and a branch of the Chinese Students' Federation, A 
large number of Chinese boys and girls after carrying 
off scholastic honors in the local schools go to the main- 
land colleges, where they do well, in comparison with the 
students educated in China and Japan, being especially 
noticeable for their English, both spoken and written. 
In employment outside of agricultural pursuits, they 
show the same qualities. They perform with fidelity 
assigned tasks, but they have not yet shown the disposi- 
tion and the power, except possibly in one or two in- 
stances, to rise to positions requiring breadth of con- 
ception and initiative. These may come with greater 
training and experience. 

The view of the public school official is well expressed 
by Principal Scott of the Honolulu High School in a 
report on the subject prepared for and printed in a 
recent report of the Governor to the Secretary of the 
Interior, from which I quote: 

"Making American Citizens 

" According to the report of the Superintendent of 
Public Instruction for the past year, there were over 
4,000 Japanese and Chinese children in the public schools 
of this Territory, nearly equaling in number the 
Hawaiian children. The male children of these two 
races born here will be American citizens if they choose 
to remain after their majority, and will become voters 
and officeholders. The question is. What instrumentali- 
ties can be brought to bear upon them that will make 
them good American citizens? Is it possible for the 
State and society to take the children of races so diverse 
from Americans as are the Japanese and Chinese and 



THE CHINESE IN HAWAII 307 

by some educational, social, and political crucible, fuse 
them and turn them out homogeneous Americans? 

" This is the practical and very interesting problem 
that presents itself to the people of this Territory, the 
solution of which is sought by both statesmen and social 
philosophers. There is no better place than Hawaii for 
an experiment of this kind. The country is small in 
area. The population is limited. The Orientals come 
into daily contact with Americans, men and women, of 
light and leading in every relation of life. The old mis- 
sionary set the example, which the man of business and 
of industry has, to a large extent, followed. The Chinese 
have always been treated here in decided contrast with 
the treatment they have received in California. By the 
advice of the early missionaries and through their or- 
ganizing power, the King and Legislature made pro- 
vision for an excellent system of public schools. That 
system, modernized and improved, is the fundamental 
agency by which the children of the diverse nationalities 
of Hawaii are to be trained, and transfused into Amer- 
ican citizenship. 

" Can it be done ? The most thoughtful educators of 
this Territory answer, emphatically, yes. It is being 
done now. It has been done. Both Chinese and Japa- 
nese born and nurtured in Hawaii are among our best 
citizens. They hold and exercise the franchise. They 
are industrious, accumulate property, are charitable and 
law-abiding." 

The high estimate in which the Chinese students are 
held is sympathetically and vigorously expressed in a 
symposium of opinions of them, by the principals of the 
leading pubHc and private schools, taken from an article 
by Francis W. Damon in the New York Independent. 
The article says, in part: 

" The following statements from the principals of the 



3o8 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

leading public schools of Honolulu, men and women of 
experience and careful judgment, are of much interest 
and value." One writes: 

" In our school of over six hundred pupils, the in- 
fluence of the Chinese boys and girls, who comprise one- 
fourth of our enrollment, is most beneficially felt. They 
set a high standard in faithful scholarship, earnestness 
of purpose, gentleness of demeanor toward their fellow 
students and respectful and grateful appreciation toward 
their teachers." 

The statement from another is as follows: 

" The Chinese children from six years old to sixteen 
are satisfactory to the teachers in every way. They are 
studious and attentive, very rarely making an infrac- 
tion of discipline. Certainly the virtue of gratitude pre- 
vails among them more than in any other race and their 
habits are an incentive to the progress of their fellow 
students. In this particular school the Chinese children 
have decreased in numbers in the past few years and 
those who attend are assimilating with the others in so 
rapid a manner that individuality is not noticed to the 
degree it was formerly." 

Still another statement runs as follows: 

" In the schoolroom the Chinese girls and boys show a 
thirst for knowledge and an enthusiasm which is most 
encouraging to the teacher. They especially like any 
study which has definite results, as mathematics. 

" On the playground the boys show a decided interest 
in sports. The girls, who are still handicapped by the 
restraint of their mothers' narrow lives, are shy about 
entering games. However, when they do throw aside 
their natural bashfulness and decide to have some fun 
and enjoyment as the boys do, the teacher feels that they 
are taking great strides toward freedom." 

In the more advanced schools their record is equally 



THE CHINESE IN HAWAII 309 

satisfactory. In the High School of Honolulu, where 
there are a number of Chinese students at the present 
time, the principal gladly pays them this fine tribute: 

" As students I find the Chinese young men truthful, 
persistent, courteous to their companions and deferential 
to their teachers. I believe that their average capacity 
is equal to that of their white brethren. Their power of 
application far exceeds that of American youth. This 
power, coupled with their good conduct, makes them 
favorites with all teachers." 

The principal of the Normal School, one of our most 
important and progressive institutions, says : 

" Since the organization of the Normal School in 1895 
there have been enrolled fifty-seven pupils of Chinese or 
part Chinese extraction. Of this number, not more than 
10 per cent, have failed either in the academic or profes- 
sional work of the school. There are at the present time 
nineteen Chinese or part Chinese connected with the 
Training School. 

" In the work of teaching, the Chinese cadet is 
thorough in the preparation of his work, prompt in the 
discharge of his duties, but possibly a little harsh in his 
bearing toward the pupils under his care. This fault, 
however, largely disappears with training. The Chinese 
Hawaiian cadet does good work in all departments of the 
school, but has a special aptitude for teaching. His ap- 
pearance before the class is good, and the children give 
him a willing obedience. In nature study, music and 
drawing he is especially strong. As an assistant teacher 
he is willing and capable." 

My own judgment of them, given at that time, I am 
now glad to emphasize by repeating it here : 

" For many years Oahu College, which is primarily a 
school for white children, but which accepts students of 
other nationalities who are able to meet our standards. 



310 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

has had a limited and somewhat selected number of 
Chinese young men and young women among its 
students. They have taken the regular courses, and, on 
the whole, they have acquitted themselves well. A large 
percentage of them have been above the average in schol- 
arship. They excel in scientific and mathematical subjects 
requiring accuracy rather than breadth of view or 
imagination. In English, without the inheritance of 
generations and without practice in good English in 
their home life, they make the poorest showing by com- 
parison. But even in this subject the marvel is, not that 
they do no better, but that they do so well. They soon 
master the grammar and make a very creditable showing 
in oral and written expression and in the use of the 
English idiom. 

" In conduct they are exemplary. They are indus- 
trious, eager, earnest seekers after everything that will 
improve them in body or in mind. There is rarely any 
question as to their ambition and willingness to work; 
when there is a failure it is usually due to conditions 
beyond their control — to lack of ability or training suffi- 
cient for the task, or to inherited tendencies too strong 
to be overcome. 

" Among our students it is now generally conceded 
that in every competition, whether on the athletic field, 
in the class-room, or in contests in speaking, they are 
factors to be reckoned with. 

" The change of conditions in China has been re- 
flected considerably in the attitude of our Chinese 
students. There has come an increased zeal for a train- 
ing, either along commercial lines or in broader academic 
courses leading to admission to Eastern colleges, that 
will better fit them for a place in the great progressive 
movement of the awakened Empire." 

The old Chinese adapted themselves to our customs 



THE CHINESE IN HAWAII 311 

and practices; the Chinese of the younger generation 
are adopting them and making them a part of themselves. 
The young Chinaman in the schools is learning to speak 
and to write English fluently. He of course has lost his 
queue and has adopted American clothes which he wears 
with a grace and nonchalance not paralleled by many 
other peoples. He has learned to dance and has blos- 
somed out as a society man in a way to surprise even 
those who are sanguine enough to expect the adoption 
of any Anglo-Saxon practice. He excels in such games 
as foot-ball, base-ball and track events, and has taken 
up tennis and similar pastimes not merely because he 
wants to do what the American boy is doing, but also 
because he gets out of them the same enjoyment as does 
the young American. 

A full-blooded Hawaiian-born Chinese boy has equalled 
the world's record for the fifty-yards dash. The best 
school and league athletic teams number Chinese among 
their members. They sing the best music. Chinese 
students in private and public schools have given 
meritorious public musical performances. Two or three 
years ago in a concert given by the pupils of the largest 
school for white children in the Territory, a young man, 
born in China, after only a few years in school sang 
a tenor solo. 

The charge of irreverence cannot be made against 
him. Missionary work among the Chinese was partic- 
ularly fruitful. As individuals they have listened 
respectfully to the message of Christian workers and 
many have deserted the religion of their fathers for the 
more vital and satisfying creeds of Christianity. As 
organizations the Chinese Christian churches have shown 
capacity for growth and have in addition been able to 
contribute to the carrying on of the work among other 
peoples. The combined testimony of Christian workers 



312 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

among the Chinese, not only in Hawaii but also in the 
home country, is so emphatically to the contrary, that it 
is idle to charge them with supercilious unwillingness to 
listen to the teaching of the Christ. 

The Chinaman is a property owner and a good tax- 
payer. He was brought to the Islands under a contract 
system which practically held him a laborer on the plan- 
tations for a period of years. But by native energy he 
overcame these barriers and became a considerable 
property owner. By 1901, 1,115 Chinese in the Territory 
owned property whose assessed value was $1,320,084 and 
12,926 Chinese owned $3,287,802 worth of personal 
property. Among the older Chinese are several who 
have made fortunes. 

The Chinese is a good spender. In matter of clothes 
and food he is something of an epicure. When he puts 
on his best he dresses in silks and costly shoes, and for 
himself, and especially for his wife and daughters, he 
buys an amount of expensive jewelry which astonishes 
his white brother. His dinners to his friends, which he 
gives on slight provocation, have course after course of 
delicious and expensive viands. The Chinese are mas- 
ters of the culinary art, and he who is invited to a 
Chinese dinner may regard himself as most fortunate. 

The testimony of the planters is to the effect that he 
spends half again as much for his provisions as a Japa- 
nese. He eats meat and vegetables and has a fondness 
for sweets. On his days of celebration, particularly on 
Chinese New Year's, he keeps open house and serves 
wine and food to whomsoever calls. Even the poorest 
of them is an open-handed giver; he is most grateful 
for any favor or act of kindness and in return he often 
gives so lavishly as fairly to shame the recipient. 

He is a law-abiding member of the community, prob- 
ably the most law-abiding immigrant that comes to our 
shores. If he understands what is required of him he is 



THE CHINESE IN HAWAII 313 

fairly sure to do it to the best of his ability. Laws which 
are administered fairly and justly he is disposed to carry 
out to the letter. He is quick to resent injustice and not 
easy to turn from a course of action to which he has 
made up his mind. He has the inflexibility of the " slow 
to anger." Their offenses against the laws of sanitation 
are due for the most part to ignorance. He leaves the 
barracks and the hovels as soon as he feels safe away 
from his fellows and knows the advantages of better 
quarters. 

Out of 883 arrests for drunkenness in 1907 in the Ter- 
ritory, there was only one Chinese. Of misdemeanors, 
aside from gambling, only 119 arrests of Chinese, 
or seven and one-half per cent., were made dur- 
ing that year, and of these sixteen were for insanity; 
only three and seven-tenths per cent, of the felonies were 
among the Chinese. He is a user of opium, a curse 
placed upon the race in large part by Anglo-Saxon hands, 
and he is by nature a gambler. Experience in Hawaii 
has shown that this trait which amounts almost to a na- 
tional weakness can be decently kept in check by a vig- 
orous police force, free of graft. 

Many Chinese are citizens and have the right to vote. 
These rights have been secured in two ways; first, per- 
sons born or naturalized in the Hawaiian Islands prior to 
June 14, 1900, became citizens on that date ; second, per- 
sons born or naturalized in the Territory of Hawaii sub- 
sequent to June 14, 1900, are citizens, subject to the limi- 
tations of a decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
States (United States vs. Wong Kim Ark 169 U. S. 
649) which recites that a child born in the United States 
of Chinese parents who are subjects of the Emperor but 
who have a permanent residence in the United States and 
are there carrying on business, but who are not mem- 
bers of the diplomatic corps becomes a citizen of the 
United States and of the State wherein he resides. 



314 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

In the period from 1842-1893, 731 Chinese and one 
Japanese were naturalized. Since 1893, no Chinese or 
Japanese have been naturaHzed. Most of these natural- 
ized Chinese have either died or left the Islands. In the 
period 1893- 1900, certificates of Hawaiian birth were 
issued to 1,479 Chinese, but these certificates are not gen- 
erally accepted as prima facie evidence of the facts 
stated. But since 1900, certificates, which are made 
prima facie evidence of Hawaiian birth before any regis- 
tration or election board and in all the courts of the Ter- 
ritory, have been issued to 2,088 Chinese and 149 Japa- 
nese. It is estimated that there are now in the Territory 
about 9,000 Chinese, Hawaiian-born and naturalized. 
How many of these are now or ever will become citizens 
under the constitution it is not possible to say. Some 
will leave the Territory while young. The number of 
voters at present, or likely to come in the near future, is 
not a source of alarm in an electorate of about 14,000. 
The following table shows both the Chinese and Japa- 
nese voters in the last four elections : — 

1902 1904 1906 1908 



Chinese 143 175 220 271 

Japanese 3 2 o 6 

Competent observers who have studied the situation 
say that the Chinese have made conscientious and con- 
servative voters. 

Conclusion 

The presence of the Chinese and Japanese in large 
numbers in Hawaii has a significance beyond the measure 
of their economic value, the purpose for which they were 
brought there. It raises the question of the final Oriental- 
ization of the Islands. Hawaii at present is absolutely 



THE CHINESE IN HAWAII 315 

American, not only in its affiliations, but also in the very 
fiber of its thought. By aggressiveness and cohesion in 
thought and action, 10,000 Americans have absolutely 
dominated a Territory with 170,000 people. Immigrants 
have been assimilated. Through the medium of the pub- 
lic schools, children of foreigners have been made into 
patriotic sons and daughters of Uncle Sam. The Asiatic 
has not affected the political or social fabric. He has 
been in, but not of, the life of the Islands. He has lived 
side by side with the dominant race, which has not 
yielded or given way. 

So far as the Chinese are concerned, the conditions in 
the last decade may well be taken as indicative of what 
the future will bring forth. Unless there is an unexpected 
change of sentiment no more Chinese will be allowed to 
come. The temper and tendencies of the present body of 
Chinese will continue to be characteristic of the race in 
the Islands. From our experience in Hawaii, there need 
be no fear that the Chinese will impose Oriental civili- 
zation, standards of living, or methods of thought upon 
the country. 

It is not necessary to say more to show that these peo- 
ple have settled in Hawaii with the idea of becoming 
Occidentals. It has been shown that the older Chinese 
under considerate treatment can throw off the conserva- 
tism of ages and in a few years adapt themselves to an 
Occidental civilization, and that the younger Chinese in a 
generation through the instrumentality of the school and 
the church have quite completely adopted American 
ideals and ways. 

Hawaii has demonstrated that the Chinese in the 
proper political, social and educational environment will 
become American citizens whose stability, patriotism and 
obedience to law will give them an honored place under 
the Stars and Stripes. 



XVII 

JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 

As one contemplates the great future of China, he is 
convinced that, of all the foreign Powers having diplo- 
matic relations with her, none will henceforth exert a 
more controlling influence upon her national life than the 
United States and Japan. Each of these two Powers 
stands in an absolutely unique relation toward China, and 
derives therefrom incomparable advantages. The pe- 
culiarity of the American position consists in the two- 
fold fact that the United States has, alone of all the Pow- 
ers, been free in the past from any act or desire of ter- 
ritorial aggression, but has in the main been engaged in 
commercial expansion in the Oriental Empire, and, for 
the future, looks confidently forward to the development 
of an economic relation with China of greater volume 
than that of any other foreign nation. These points have 
been fully discussed during the present Conference. At- 
tention has not, however, been directed to the even more 
peculiar and more important relation that exists and will 
develop between China and her neighbor Japan. Already 
the general sentiment in this country regarding the Chi- 
no-Japanese relation is in the danger of falling into 
certain conventionaUzed ways of thinking, which are un- 
fortunately guided by largely misconstrued events of 
temporary nature, with little regard to permanent forces 
irresistibly shaping the destinies of the two nations. It 
is the aim of this paper to point out, if possible, some of 
these great forces in the Chino- Japanese relation, and 
to suggest that an American policy toward China formu- 

317 



3i8 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

lated without due consideration of these forces would be 
liable to be disastrous to all parties. 

In the discussion of this great themCj one must first 
of all remember that the relation of China with Japan 
is at least sixteen centuries old, and, what is more, has 
during this long period been of much more intimate na- 
ture than the relation of any one of the Occidental na- 
tions with China has been at any time since their first 
contact with her. 

In the Middle Ages, at the same time that the western 
European nations were slowly evolving their great unity 
in variety, that is, their common culture and their in- 
dividual characteristics, in eastern Asia, also, China and 
Japan gradually developed a striking contrast of char- 
acter within the same family of race and culture. 

You know that the peoples of China and Japan had 
migrated to their present habitats neither at the same time 
nor from the same origin. You know, also, that they had 
brought with them languages which were further apart 
from each other than English is from Russian. Nor is it 
less well known that their physical surroundings and their 
political and social history were radically different, and 
contributed to the formation of their very divergent moral 
characteristics. 

Despite these fundamental points of difference, how- 
ever, the two nations belonged to the same large stock of 
the human species. Here was a powerful bond of kin- 
ship which circumstances might obscure but which noth- 
ing could efface. Moreover, the continual relations ex- 
isting between them gradually bound them together in a 
common life of culture, China being, in these cultured re- 
lations, a generous teacher, and Japan an eager pupil. It 
would require volumes to describe the growing close- 
ness and depth of the relations of the teacher and the 
pupil during the Middle Ages. In her long march in 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 319 

civilization, Japan hardly took a forward step without re- 
ceiving an impulse therefor from China. Thus, the lan- 
guage of Japan came to be written, as it is to this day, 
by means of Chinese ideographs and of syllabaries sim- 
plified from them. The form of the Japanese government 
was remodelled in the seventh century after the pattern 
of Chinese institutions, and this great reform continued 
to affect the political life of Japan in one way or another 
for more than a thousand years. The Confucian ethics 
exerted a profound influence upon the code of morals in 
feudal Japan. Especially interesting is the manner in 
which Japan received through China Buddhism and 
Buddhist art and literature. These came to Japan in 
different forms in different periods of history. A vast 
variety of cultural elements, Indian, Hellenic, Byzantine, 
western and central Asiatic, as well as Chinese, con- 
tributed to make the composite body of culture known as 
Buddhism and Buddhist art. The wonderful blending 
of these elements took place in China, and, out of this 
grand thesaurus, Japan selected, in each period of her 
history, those phases as best suited her spiritual and ar- 
tistic needs. It is not implied that the culture of the two 
nations was identical. Far from it — for Japan had a 
pronounced individuality, and never accepted foreign 
elements without assimilating them in the end. It is 
none the less true that no important part of Japanese 
culture — politics, philosophy, religion, morals, or art — 
could have been what it was but for its immense indebt- 
edness to the continental civilization received from China. 
Sixteen centuries of this intimate relation and natural 
sympathy of China and Japan have been followed by 
thirty years of temporary antipathy between them. It 
was an apparent misfortune to humanity that these 
brothers of the same race and common culture should, 
as they did, part hands as soon as they entered their 



320 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

modern international careers. When their doors were 
open to foreign nations, Japan at once awoke to the con- 
viction, but China refused to admit it, that her sovereign 
rights could be upheld only with adequate national 
strength, and that her real strength lay in the path of re- 
form. This difference in attitude created a gulf between 
the two nations — a gulf which must, from its very nature, 
disappear when China enters, as she is now beginning 
to do, the same path of reform as Japan has been pursu- 
ing ahead of her. In the meantime, however, to China's 
unwillingness to set her house in order, and to her conse- 
quent inability to take care of her own affairs, enforce 
her own rights, and perform her own duties, are directly 
traceable the ultimate causes of the Opium and Arrow 
wars, the Chino-Japanese War, the Boxer War, the 
Russo-Japanese War, and other disastrous events. Let 
us now briefly follow the story, at once pathetic and 
happy, how the awakened Japan and dormant China 
came to a short period of conflict, and how this conflict 
has contributed to the awakening of China. 

In this period of thirty years, there are three great 
events which may serve as landmarks in our discussion, 
namely, the Chino-Japanese War of 1894-5, the Boxer 
War in 1900, and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5. 

The war between China and Japan was a direct re- 
sult of Japan's resolution to reconstruct Eastern poli- 
tics on the modern basis and China's persistence in the 
old methods. There was born a natural antipathy be- 
tween the two Powers as soon as the divergence of their 
policies became evident. And these opposing policies 
came to a clash when they were applied to Korea. For 
it was to Japan's interest to reform and strengthen 
Korea, and to China's interest to keep the Korean gov- 
ernment corrupt and weak. The war ensued, the result 
of which, as is well known, came as a clear evidence of 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 321 

the superiority of the modern methods which Japan had 
adopted. 

The effects of the war upon the situation in the Orient 
were far-reaching. Japan's rise as a modern nation in 
the estimate of the world may be said to date from this 
time. For China, the effects were two-fold. 

In the first place, her defeat exposed her feebleness, 
and this revelation invited a sudden increase of the pres- 
sure of the Powers for concessions of all kinds in China, 
which was powerless to resist the demands. As has 
been pointed out in several papers during this Conference, 
pieces of land highly important from the strategic or com- 
mercial standpoint were leased out, the rights to build 
railways and work mines were granted, and large di- 
visions of territory were marked out as spheres of inter- 
est and of influence : moreover, these leases, concessions 
and spheres were generally regarded by the Powers as 
bases for further aggrandizement. There is no other pe- 
riod of five years in the modern history of China in 
which her sovereign rights were so seriously encroached 
upon by the rival Powers as between 1895 and 1900. 
These were evil days of the Old Diplomacy in China, 
that is, the diplomacy by which nations of the West 
struggled for a balance of power among themselves, in 
China, and at her expense. Americans, also, joined the 
other nations, though without aggressive intentions upon 
territory, td wrest railway concessions from the unwill- 
ing China. Their attempts in 1886, 1896, and 1897, to 
secure the right to finance a part of the Imperial Railway 
of North China, the Tientsin-Chingkiang railway, and 
the Peking-Hankow railway, failed, but in 1898 they 
succeeded in getting temporarily the concession to build 
the Hankow-Canton railway. 

It is a significant fact in Eastern history that out of 
this " battle of concessions " among the Powers were 



322 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

slowly evolved the two great principles of the new di- 
plomacy in China : the principle that the independence and 
the territorial integrity of the Chinese Empire should no 
more be encroached upon than they already had been, 
and the principle that all nations should henceforth be 
allowed to compete in China commercially and indus- 
trially with no more unequal opportunities among them- 
selves than might hitherto have obtained. That these 
fair principles of the new diplomacy were born out of 
the questionable practices of the old diplomacy was due 
to the very fact that the craze for concession and ag- 
grandizement in China among the Powers had risen to 
such fever that none of them could feel assured that the 
gains they had already made would not be outbalanced 
at any moment by the gains other Powers might secure 
from the feeble China. It was for this reason that the 
new principles as working theories for all the Powers 
were first clearly conceived and insisted upon by Great 
Britain, the Power which had the largest vested interests 
in China and was therefore the most eager to preserve 
its interests and to prevent other Powers from acquiring 
further discriminating favors for themselves. Whatever 
the motive, however, the principles were apparently just, 
and, as such, commended themselves to the United States, 
which had asked and obtained a railway concession but 
was never inclined to be territorially aggressive in that 
particular part of the world, and to other Povv^ers, which 
had little pretext to oppose the just principles. 

It should not be forgotten, however, that these were 
lame principles. The so-called independence and integ- 
rity of China meant, not that the territorial and judicial 
sovereignty and the financial autonomy of the Empire, 
which had been and still are being seriously menaced or 
eclipsed at the treaty ports and leased districts and by 
means of concessions of various kinds, should now be 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 323 

-restored and respected in entirety, but merely that no 
more of China's territory than had been ceded should be 
permanently acquired by any foreign Power. Likewise, 
the so-called equal opportunity meant, not that any of 
those concessions which the Powers had acquired indi- 
vidually or in common from China, in the former case 
with the clear intention that they should afford better 
economic opportunities to the concessionaires than to 
others, should be repealed, nor even that no new conces- 
sions should be sought in China, but simply that no fur- 
ther discriminating arrangement than had been made 
should be effected between any Power and China. The 
past gains of the old diplomacy remained intact, and 
might even be, as we know that they still are, duplicated 
under certain conditions. What were these conditions? 
What constituted an infringement of the first principle 
and a violation of the second? It is a remarkable fact 
that no clear answer to these important questions has 
been made by the Powers in common. There perhaps is 
little difficulty in determining whether any given act by 
a foreign Power may be construed as encroaching upon 
the independence and integrity of China, for no one can 
fail to perceive such complex a matter as the passing of a 
piece of territory from one State to another, but it seems 
less easy to define what makes up an unequal opportunity. 
Real facts go to prove that any of the following hypothet- 
ical arangements would be regarded as creating unequal 
opportunities and an infringement of the " open door " 
principle : namely, that, within an area, no new treaty 
ports should be opened to the world's commerce and resi- 
dence, and no mining or railway concession should, 
without consulting the wishes of a foreign Power, be 
made at any time to any other Power; that a railway or 
mining concession within a large district should be ex- 
clusively and permanently granted to a Power; that a 



324 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Power should, on the railway which it builds and man- 
ages on the strength of a legitimate concession granted 
for a definite term, impose freight rates specially low for 
the merchandise shipped by its own subjects or specially 
high for that of other nations ; and that, at any maritime 
customs stations, a nation should be allowed discriminat- 
ing import or export duties (in overland trade with 
China, however, special arrangements of rates not being 
absent). On the other hand, the United States and all 
the other Powers having relations with China enjoy and 
still eagerly seek some or all of the following kinds of 
advantages from China : ( i ) a concession for the work- 
ing for a definite period of time, or the mere financing, of 
a railway enterprise, often accompanied with the right to 
work mines along the proposed line, and almost always 
coupled with the agreement that, within the stipulated 
term, no other railway prejudicial to the interest of the 
present line should be built in its neighborhood without 
the consent of the foreign contracting party; (2) a con- 
cession for a mining, manufacturing, or other industrial 
enterprise at a specific place within a specific length of 
time; (3) the right of protecting, with police or military 
forces, either a river-course exposed to pirates in which 
the foreign nation has a predominant interest, or a rail- 
way passing through a region infested with dangerous 
robbers, the latter case obtaining only until such time as 
Chinese forces may be capable of protecting the line, 
and otherwise terminating with the term of the railway 
itself; (4) the right of exercising limited municipal con- 
trol over the land belonging to a railway during the time 
in which the concessionary Power manages the line ; and, 
finally, (5) the right of police and general municipal ad- 
ministration, as well as extra-territorial jurisdiction, by 
foreign Powers at treaty ports and marts, within speci- 
fied areas, but for an indefinite period of time. This last 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 325 

right is a substantial breach of the principle of the in- 
dependence and integrity of China, and the reasons why 
no Power deems it a violation of the principle of equal 
opportunity must be that all the Powers equally share 
the benefit arising from it, and that it is one of so-called 
" treaty rights," or rights secured by virtue of appar- 
ently bona Ude agreements to which China is declared to 
be a voluntary party. Now, looking over all the five 
classes of privileges enumerated above, what general 
definition of the " open door " may we be justified in de- 
ducing from them? To my knowledge, the clearest defi- 
nition on this important question was given by Count 
Serge de Witte during the peace conference at Ports- 
mouth, and I believe that his definition coincides with the 
view held tacitly by all the Powers in China. The Count 
said that no rights which were acquired lawfully from 
China within a limited space of her territory, and which 
did not exclude a third party from securing similar ad- 
vantages from her, could be considered a monopoly, or a 
violation of the principle of equal opportunity. It will 
be seen at once that the definition is negative. It is, in- 
deed, to be expected that any definition of this principle 
should remain negative, so long as the principle is dis- 
cussed among foreign Powers as one binding upon them- 
selves individually in their dealings with China. It would 
assume a positive aspect only when she becomes suffi- 
ciently strong to regulate the extent of the opportunity 
which she would grant impartially to all foreign nations. 
Until that happy time arrives, the Powers would con- 
tinue to cherish such competitive favors from China as 
they individually regard as, not necessarily conforming 
to the principles of the new diplomacy, but not exactly 
contrary to them. Nor is it clear that these favors are not 
to a large extent due to China's still serious inability to 
enforce her own rights and protect legitimate foreign in- 



326 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

terests. It is even possible to find a partial consolation 
— not justification — in the thought that, when China re- 
sumes all the concessions at the end of their terms, she 
will find that the success of her reformatory measures had 
been very materially insured by the railways, mines, and 
treaty ports, and by the general development of the 
country consequent upon them, in which foreign na- 
tions had contributed money and skill, as it will then be 
evident, largely to China's ultimate good. To this felici- 
tous result should conduce a real observance by the Pow- 
ers of the principles of the new diplomacy, imperfect as 
they may be. 

Even the imperfect principles may, then, be regarded 
as an immense advance from the old diplomacy, which 
had created a continual disturbance and readjustment of 
the balance of power among rival nations in China at 
her greater and greater expense. This latter process, as 
we have seen, increased its pace so suddenly after the 
Chino-Japanese War, that the combined sense of self- 
interest and fairness on the part of a few Powers reacted 
against the old diplomacy in the form of the apparently 
juster principles of the new diplomacy. It is, therefore, 
safe to conclude that the war served to bring about a 
situation which contributed indirectly but powerfully to 
a clear conception of these progressive principles. 

Attention is called to another important effect of the 
war upon China, namely, the dawn of her period of re- 
form. The many reverses she had sustained in the past 
at the hands of European Powers did not impress upon 
her mind with the need of a reform so strongly as did 
the defeat inflicted by Japan — a nation which had for- 
merly been her pupil in culture, but which had parted 
company with China, to her great disgust, and entered 
on a road of reform. However, the reformatory meas- 
ures adopted by the Chinese Emperor were too radical 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 327 

for the time, and resulted in the rise once more to power 
of the late Empress Dowager and her ultra-conservative 
advisers. 

The reactionary movement thus inaugurated in 1898 
was fanned by political passions of certain factions in 
China, and finally broke out in the Boxer uprising in 
1900. The forces of the allied Powers invaded the Capi- 
tal, and the Imperial court had to flee to Sian. This sad 
event, however, proved a blessing in disguise for China, 
for it caused both the reform movement and the new 
diplomacy to make an important progress. 

1. The reform movement which was nipped in the bud 
in 1898 was now revived after the convincing lesson of 
1900, and was approved by the Empress Dowager her- 
self, who had been considered its arch-enemy. A decree 
of 1901 frankly reversed the historic idea of the incom- 
parable superiority of the Chinese Empire to all outside 
barbarian states, and admitted in the clearest terms that 
its subjects had always lacked public spirit and its laws 
and institutions were antiquated and impractical. Ja- 
pan's strength through reform was again cited in the 
decree as the example to be emulated. Opinions on the 
methods of reform were extensively sought. The central 
government was in a measure reorganized, with the new 
Board of Commerce and the remodelled Board of For- 
eign Affairs. A system of national education and that 
of metropolitan police, based largely upon Japanese 
models, were framed and put into force. Time was, 
however, not yet ripe for a more thoroughgoing re- 
form. 

2. The new diplomacy. During and after the Boxer 
War, their common danger due to China's weakness and 
their mutual jealousy compelled the Powers to act in 
concert in their dealings with China on the basis of the 
new diplomacy. It is remarkable that the Powers, in 



328 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

spite of their divergent interests in China, showed a suf- 
ficient degree of self-control throughout their joint ne- 
gotiations with China to prevent from becoming serious 
what little disputes arose among them. Thus the very 
weakness of China and jealousy of the Powers tended to 
unite the latter for the time being in a manner which was 
on the whole advantageous to China. The principles of 
the new diplomacy seemed thereby to have acquired a 
great momentum. It was, however, in the midst of this 
concerted movement of the Powers that one of them be- 
gan to pursue a policy in another part of the Chinese 
Empire which soon proved the greatest peril that has 
ever menaced the integrity of China and the equal op- 
portunity therein. 

It is needless to repeat the well-known story how Rus- 
sia occupied Manchuria by mihtary force in 1900, and 
sought during the next four years to retain it and pre- 
vent its opening to the industrial and commercial enter- 
prise of other nations ; how, in order to realize her ends in 
Manchuria, Russia endeavored to seize the southern 
coast and northern frontier of Korea ; and how Russian 
aggression in these two countries threatened the vital in- 
terest of Japan for all time to come. Nor is it necessary 
to relate how Japan, assisted by the United States and 
Great Britain, insisted upon the observance by Russia of 
the principles of the new diplomacy, at first through the 
indifferent and impotent China, and then directly to Rus- 
sia, all to no purpose; and how diplomacy passed into 
war, and the war ended in Japan's victory. 

A little reflection will show that the war was waged 
largely for the common interest of China and Japan. 
Moreover, Japan had advised China to remain neutral 
during hostilities, and this was followed by the suggestion 
from the United States that the sphere of war-like oper- 
ations should be limited to the extent of Russian occupa- 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 329 

tion. It is probable that, had not Japan and the United 
States insisted on respecting Chinese neutrahty, the vast 
Empire might have been exposed to grave dangers in- 
volving the interest of foreign nations and entaiHng ad- 
ditional financial burdens on China. It is even more evi- 
dent that if Japan had not successfully combated Russia 
in Manchuria, the new diplomacy would have sustained a 
terrible disaster, and the 364,000 square miles of the three 
provinces in this part of the Empire would have been lost 
to China. Fortunately, Japan won, Manchuria was saved, 
and the principles of the new diplomacy were not only 
enforced against Russia through the greatest war of 
modern times, but were further confirmed by the de- 
mand by Japan, acceded to by China, to open sixteen new 
ports and marts in Manchuria to the world's commerce 
and industry. Japan followed her achievement in arms 
with diplomatic efforts, and succeeded between 1905 and 
1908 in inducing Great Britain, Russia, France, and the 
United States to make agreements or joint declara- 
tions with herself to uphold the principles of the new 
diplomacy in the Chinese Empire. It is a remarkable 
event in the world's history that these principles, which 
had shortly before been in imminent danger of being 
trampled under foot in an important section of China, 
are now solemnly advocated by their recent enemy and 
his ally, and the two great Anglo-Saxon Powers, con- 
jointly with Japan. If one is so skeptical as to regard 
these international pledges as platitudes, he would not 
deny that the principles have now become the watch- 
word, the point of view, and the faith and hope of every 
intelligent person of the civilized world in his attitude 
toward China, so that no Power might again dare vio- 
late them without incurring upon itself the censure of the 
world's opinion — an important fact of the kind that car- 
ries human progress a stage forward. Such was not the 



330 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

case at any period previous to the war. This resuU has 
been largely due, it would be unfair to ignore, to the per- 
sistence, daring, sacrifice, and diplomacy that have been 
used by Japan in behalf of these principles. 

The effect of the war was not limited to the saving of 
Manchuria to China and to the enforcement and the 
world-wide education of the principles of the new di- 
plomacy, but it also changed the relative position of the 
Powers in China in such a way as to a large extent to 
dissolve the spheres of influence and disconcert the plans 
for future aggression marked out by them in China after 
her war with Japan ten years before. The defeat of 
Russia broke the cherished scheme of herself and her 
ally France to control the entire railway communication 
between Siberia and Indo-China by way of Harbin, Pe- 
king, Canton, and Yunnan. This loosening of the bond 
has enabled China to restore the line between Peking and 
Hankow. The projected lines between Harbin and Pe- 
king, via Kalgan, and between Hankow and Yunnan via 
Chungking, are no longer apt to be conceded to Russian 
or French interest. The general disintegration has been 
closely followed by the invasion of German, French and 
American enterprise in sections part of which had been 
considered an exclusive British sphere of influence. Side 
by side with these significant phenomena should be noted 
the revised alignment of the Powers in China. The frank 
admission by Russia of her defeat and her consequent 
reconciliation with Japan has largely contributed to the 
dissipation of the traditional enmity between Russia and 
England, as also between her ally France and England. 
The agreement between Russia and England concluded 
in 1907 defining their policies in Persia, Afghanistan, and 
Tibet, is an additional guarantee of the stability of Asia. 
These are some, not all, of the by-products of the great 
war of 1904-5. 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 331 

Still more important is the effect of Japan's victory 
upon the reform movement in China. It is true that the 
movement dates after the war of 1894-5, and made a large 
progress after the Boxer incident, but there is every evi- 
dence to prove that the need of a thorough reform at last 
became national consciousness only after the Russo-Japa- 
nese War. The indifference with which the Peking au- 
thorities regarded Manchuria after the Boxer War has 
now changed into a widespread enthusiasm among of- 
ficials and gentry throughout the provinces to resume 
foreign concessions and to protect China's sovereign 
rights. The ideas regarding reform also have undergone 
a fundamental change. At last the Government and the 
higher classes of the people have advanced beyond mere 
shifting in the official organization at Peking, which has 
hitherto seemed to have been almost synonymous with 
reform in their minds. They have now committed them- 
selves to a thoroughgoing reform of all phases of political 
life, based upon a constitutional form of government, 
pointing toward a radical change in the relation between 
the central and provincial administration, which is the 
core of the whole problem of political reform. This is 
a departure from the traditional system paralleled only 
by the drastic changes made by the first emperor of the 
Ts'in dynasty in the third century B.C. If the student 
should ask what has prompted the Chinese nation at last 
to come to this point, he would easily perceive clear evi- 
dence on every hand that this was, not entirely, but very 
largely, due to the lesson China learned deeply from the 
unconscious example set by Japan — a nation of similar 
race and formerly of common culture with herself, which 
had risen rapidly to a position of power while China had 
remained dormant, and which, because of China's very 
impotency, had even engaged in a costly war, partly in 
the interest of Chinese rights in Manchuria, and won 



ZZ^ CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

over a colossal Power whose strength had been believed 
to be unbounded. Whence was this power of Japan? 
asked the thoughtful Chinese to themselves, and both 
friends and foes of Japan came to the conclusion that 
the secret lay in her constitutional form of government. 
It enlisted the interest of the people in their own national 
affairs, and taught them to act like one man under a 
common peril. It does not belong to us to judge the 
truth of this solution, but the fact is that it had already 
resulted in a comprehensive plan of national reform in 
China. The impartial historian cannot be blind to the 
close relation of this new situation to the success of 
Japan's reform brought home to China by the recent 
war. 

Thus far we have seen only some of the larger effects 
of the war that have been produced in China. It may be 
imagined that as great effects have entailed upon Japan 
also. Her position among the Powers of the world has 
been materially raised, her freedom of future growth 
has been amply assured, and her responsibility as a na- 
tion has suddenly increased. In short, both for China 
and for Japan, the war has created a new world and a 
new atmosphere such as have seldom been paralleled in 
history. It could not be expected that a nation of fifty 
million souls, like Japan, or of four hundred million, like 
China, would be able to adjust itself to the new situa- 
tion so abruptly opened before it without making costly 
blunders. It would be as unjust to ignore these blunders, 
as to exaggerate them. We may perhaps make an at- 
tempt to analyze the nature of the errors that have been 
committed by China and Japan in their mutual relation 
during the brief period of preparation for their respective 
new careers. 

Let us first take Japan to task. Although she staked 
her fortune in the war on the issue of the two principles 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 333 

of the new diplomacy, she was compelled, partly from 
military necessity, and partly from the imperative need 
of preventing a renewal of Russian aggression in Man- 
churia, to build a railway between the Korean border 
and Mukden; and to secure from Russia, with the con- 
sent of China, and with necessary modifications, all the 
concessions that the former had gained from the latter 
south of the city of Chang-chun. I have no time to enter 
into the detail of the complex arrangement in southern 
Manchuria, which I discussed rather fully in the Yale 
Review for August and November, 1908, and May, 1909, 
so far as was practicable at those dates. It will be seen 
in these articles that all the privileges Japan secured In 
Manchuria were essentially of the same nature as those 
enjoyed by all the Powers in China, including the United 
States, conjointly by all or separately by each one, in 
other parts of China. Nor has Japan's actual conduct in 
Manchuria been more aggressive or less justified than 
that of other Powers in other sections of the Empire. 
Yet the former has been severely criticised by the outside 
world, and that for very natural reasons, Japan had in- 
culcated throughout the world the need of the principles 
of the new diplomacy in China by means of her brilliant 
warfare and subsequent diplomacy, and made them the 
world's point of view in regard to Manchuria. After thus 
inviting the scrutiny of the world upon her own con- 
duct in this territory, she has inherited here from Russia 
certain fruits of the latter's old diplomacy. The world's 
understanding of the new diplomacy is simple and the- 
oretical, while the conduct of special privileges is, as is 
evident from Mr. Straight's experience in China at this 
moment, always complex, at times tortuous, and often 
seems almost contrary to the new principles, even if it 
does not violate them. In this fundamental foible of 
Japan's delicate position in Manchuria, those foreigners 



334 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

who had special reasons to be unfriendly to Japan espied 
the opportunity to alienate her from the jealous China 
and the unknowing world. In this juncture, Japan, has 
unwittingly but straightway walked into the snare. For 
she had hardly time to revise her national consciousness 
so as to adjust it to the new rights and responsibilities 
that had been abruptly thrust upon her as results of the 
war. Few nations had been carried into so novel a situ- 
ation within so short a period as Japan was between 
1904 and 1905. Her subjects and officials who came to 
Manchuria in the wake of the war had hardly realized 
the new position of China and the new attitude of the 
world toward her. They were too full with the conscious- 
ness that China would have lost Manchuria but for 
Japan's terrible sacrifice, to remember that, on the con- 
trary, the Chinese and the foreign merchants in Man- 
churia " expected that Japan would hand over to them 
the entire fruits of her tremendous effort, and claim 
nothing for herself," and still less to remember that her 
position had, because of her very victory, become all the 
more difficult and her responsibility increased. The 
Japanese in Manchuria, therefore, committed many er- 
rors, especially in their effort to secure commercial su- 
premacy in southern Manchuria, and gave rise to criti- 
cisms some of which they merited. 

Thus far we have seen the nature of Japan's blunders 
during her period of transition and adjustment. Let 
us now turn to the errors of China in her relation, not 
only with Japan, but with all the Powers. Every lover 
of justice and progress rejoices in China's reform move- 
ment, and wishes it godspeed, but no true friend of 
China should be blind to certain difficulties which beset 
it, and which, if unwisely encouraged, might not only de- 
feat the main objects of the reform itself, but bring about 
serious evils upon China and the world. We refer, for 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 335 

one thing, to the blind chauvinism of a large body of the 
Chinese. This spirit has for ages manifested itself in 
the historic idea that China was the center of the civilized 
world and all other nations having relations with her 
were her dependencies or tributaries. History records 
how this dogma stifled the Catholic mission work in China 
in the seventeenth century, how it brought about the dis- 
aster of the Opium and Arrow wars upon her, and how 
it broke out in a widespread anti-foreign movement so 
late as 1900. The same sentiment now takes the form of 
China for the Chinese — a worthy aspiration, but unfor- 
tunately accompanied with little regard to China's obli- 
gations to other nations. The advocates of this idea 
would enforce her sovereign rights, conceived in a sur- 
prisingly crude manner, without sufficient strength to 
guard them, and without remembering her duties as a 
nation and her special obligations as a hitherto half-inde- 
pendent nation. They would give no more concessions 
and revoke all the old concessions. They ignore that 
China lacks sufficient movable capital to develop her 
own resources, while it is evident that no measure of 
national reform would be effective without means of 
easy communication between all parts of the Empire, 
and without first husbanding her vast resources and 
energy. These men also would, if that were possible, 
abrogate all other so-called " treaty rights " and " vested 
interests " of other nations, which are no doubt vestiges 
of the old diplomacy, but which have their terms to run 
or are otherwise entitled to proper protection. The re- 
actionary movement resembles the reform movement only 
on the surface, for they are both based on the praise- 
worthy desire to rehabilitate China, but the former is the 
antidote of the latter, and is at once unstatesmanhke, im- 
practicable, and extremely dangerous first of all to China. 
The genuine reformers, like the Prince Regent, would 



336 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

first aim at strengthening China by reorganizing her in- 
stitutions and developing her great resources, and by 
discharging honorably all the obligations to other nations 
■which are legitimate. Then, and then only, would China 
be truly independent, sovereigii. and powerful, the terms 
of all the dangerous concessions having in the meantime 
expired and foreign municipalities at last restored to Chi- 
nese rule. These wise reformers are. however, unfortu- 
nately in the minority at present, and are often obliged 
to yield to the chauvinistic sentiment that prevails among 
the gentry and officials. There is not a single Power 
having relations with China that has not been seriously 
obstructed in its just dealings by this universal reac- 
tionary movement. The American capitalists who have 
proposed to advance a part of the loans for the Hankow- 
Canton and Hankow"-Szechwan railways have experienced 
the same difficulty in the vigorous opposition made by 
the gentry of Hupeh and Hunan against any foreign 
loan. These men might have prevailed but for tlie reso- 
lute policy of the chief commissioner, Chang Chi-Tung, 
to complete and manage these lines as model railways. 

The situation has been made worse by another habit 
of tlie Chinese political mind, which also is a product 
of peculiar conditions that have characterized the long 
history of this Empire, v Wlien China deals with several 
Powers at once, she is in the habit of setting them against 
one another in such a manner as to weary them with 
tlieir mutual quarrel and to reap the benefit tlierefrom 
for herself. The annals of China are sing'ularly full of 
examples of this practice. It is only in recent months 
that the press in England awoke to tlie fact that China 
had been eng-aged in alienating Japan from her ally and 
appealing to the moral support of the misguided world 
with every means at her disposal. The Americans have 
not been subjected to this sort of dealing except in the 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 337 

slight instances of 1896-7, when the commissioner, Sheng, 
allowed British, American, and Belgian capitalists to fight 
among themselves in the dark, to the benefit of the Bel- 
gians and to China's own regrets in later years ; and again 
in the present instance of the Hankow-Canton and Han- 
kow-Szechwan railway loan, in which the Germans were 
allowed surreptitiously to compete with the British and 
French, and in which pledges of 1903 and 1904 with the 
British and Americans were ignored until they were 
obliged to protest against the breach of faith. 

It is impossible to overestimate the insidious danger 
to China that must result from indulging in this blind 
policy of reaction and intrigue. It is often said that 
China is in a great national crisis, but it should be re- 
membered that more crises exist within than without. 
The international position of China is to-day much more 
secure than it was before the recent war, so that the op- 
portunity for China to reform herself unmolested by the 
outside world is now better than it ever has been. What 
seriously obstructs her reform and at the same time ex- 
poses her to any possible external danger is her own his- 
toric mental habit and lack of foresight to perceive her 
danger. Unless she exercised a sufficient degree of re- 
flection and self-denial to rise above the habitual, unen- 
lightened policy of reaction and intrigue, and build up 
first of all her own sources of national strength, it is safe 
to say that she would never be a full sovereign nation. 
Japan was once confronted by the same problem, and 
her present position is owing wholly to the resoluteness 
with which she then suppressed her natural reactionary 
feeling and has since reformed her institutions and hus- 
banded her resources. If one pictured in his mind the 
worthy aspiration of one section of the Chinese nation 
to remodel its national life upon a modern basis, by the 
side of a much larger and stronger section clamoring for 



338 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

crude rights guarded by no real strength and attended by 
no obHgations, he would at once see that a sharp discrim- 
ination between them was necessary, and that any sym- 
pathy shown with the latter sentiment was misplaced and 
conducive to the defeat of the admirable movement for a 
national reform. 

Now, all these unfortunate circumstances on both the 
Japanese and Chinese side have been enumerated with a 
full conviction that they are temporary, and that they her- 
ald the coming of a better age in China's relation with 
Japan and all the Powers. It is unreasonable to expect 
any historic nation with all the inertia of its past ages to 
adjust itself quickly to a situation so suddenly changed 
as that of China and Japan after the recent war. To re- 
gard their errors at this transitional age as normal and as 
hable to be always repeated is too much to distrust the 
wonderful good sense of the Chinese nation and the re- 
markable catholicity and self-reflection of the Japanese. 
Practical catholicity has been the greatest saving quality 
of Japan throughout the ages. If you do not know this 
quality, you know little of the Japanese people. Their 
history presents striking instances — in the seventh and 
ninth centuries, in their Chinese relations, and, in the 
nineteenth, in their European relations — in which this 
quality extricated Japan from grave national perils. 
Here is a nation which has never deceived or stultified 
itself for any great length of time. In the present crisis, 
also, time and experience will bring the Japanese to a 
lively appreciation of their past errors and of their new 
responsibilities toward their own country and China. To 
my mind, the signs of this second awakening of Japan 
seem already abundant. She is living in an inspiring 
period in which each half-year brings more lessons to 
her enlivened curiosity than would a decade in a normal 
age, and the Japanese of 1909 appear to me much saner 



. JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 339 

and fairer than the Japanese of 1906 and 1907 under the 
foreign ministry of Viscount Hayashi. As for the 
Chinese, they have always moved more slowly than the 
Japanese, and the fact has brought much misfortune 
upon them, but, when they are once fully convinced, they 
move with unerring good sense and with mighty force. 
The present reform movement, which has come about at 
last after seventy years of bitter experience, which is of 
the most radical character in the whole history of the 
Empire, but which will not again turn back, is an illus- 
tration of this quality. Dr. Headland has, in his re- 
markable addresses, given you many intimate examples 
of the innate good sense of the Chinese. Among the 
most recent events, I have been most forcibly impressed 
by the masterly manner in which the peace of the Court 
and the Capital was maintained at the successive demises 
of the late Emperor and the Empress Dowager; by the 
clever way in which the present Empress Dowager has 
quietly and with dignity been placed in a position at once 
exalted and too far removed from the actual government 
to influence it with her personal views ; by the freedom 
with which the Government has been employing the serv- 
ice, without regard to their birth, of men who have 
studied abroad ; and by the practical conservatism shown 
in the program of a progressive reform to be carried 
out in the course of ten years. Specially notable are the 
measures regarding national defense, communication, and 
judicial affairs, which, if executed, would result in 
greatly strengthening the central government at the ex- 
pense of the provincial. It is impressive enough to see 
the promulgation of these measures which, in effect, con- 
tradict some of the most ancient and tenacious political 
traditions of the nation, but it is even more remarkable 
that they have so far met practically no opposition from 
the jealous provincial authorities. Time passes, and 



340 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

China's practical wisdom seems to have grown with it. 
I venture to think that we may depend upon it that, after 
a little more experience, the Chinese will be able to free 
their reform movement from the blind reactionary spirit 
which, however worthy as a motive, invites troubles and 
retards progress. At present, the reform movement is 
weaker than the reactionary movement, but the former 
is the new but main force, and the latter is a historic im- 
pediment of a nature that will be finally overcome. 
It is in this process, rather than in furthering the thought- 
less reaction, that Japan and the United States might 
assist China with loyal service. 

When the time comes when these expectations are ful- 
filled, that is, when China and Japan pursue the same 
path of reform with the same modern spirit infused into 
their old common culture, the days of their abnormal 
friction will have ended, and those of their mutual 
stimulus and support will have begun. The period of 
transition and adjustment will have been followed by one 
of free competition among the two nations and their 
equality with the Western nations. Those who would, 
from whatever motive, separate China and Japan wider 
and longer than would be natural, seem to forget that 
the ethnic and geographical ties of the two Oriental 
nations, reinforced, as they are, by sixteen centuries of 
their historic and cultural relations of the most intimate 
character recorded in human history, are far too close 
and too vital to break under any temporary disagree- 
ment between them of a few decades' standing. An 
immediate proof of this statement is the profound in- 
fluence exerted by Japan upon China's career of reform. 
She has not only been inspired by Japan's living example 
more than by any other agency, but also has, of her own 
accord, either modeled after the Japanese pattern or 
followed Japanese advice, to a very large extent, in fram- 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 341 

ing her new systems of law, education, police, railway 
administration, army and navy, and — more important 
than all the rest — the very principles of a contemplated 
constitution. China fiirst sent men to all the principal 
constitutional governments in the world, including the 
United States, to study their systems, and then, after de- 
liberation, sent men only to the constitutional monarchies, 
Germany, England, and Japan. The results of investi- 
gation in Japan have, as was perfectly natural from the 
similarity of the original forms of government in the 
two countries, had the greatest influence upon the con- 
stitutional ideas of Chinese reformers. Again, consider 
such educational campaign carried forward between the 
two nations as that of the Japanese association known 
as the T6-A D6-bun Kwai, in training Chinese students 
in Japan and Japanese students in China, and in com- 
piling monumental works on the politics, geography and 
economics of China, which in their thoroughness and ac- 
curacy are unrivalled in any language. In this work, as 
well as many others, Japan's share in China's reform 
could hardly be parallelled by that of any Western nation 
with the expenditure of any amount of money and 
energy, for the former is possible only with the profound 
affinity existing between the two nations and the incom- 
parable advantage arising from it. Japan is thus silently 
aiding China more efficiently than any other nation to 
make her a powerful independent nation. Add to this 
the economic bond of the two nations, which is not only 
close, but is vital, and increasingly vital, as is the case 
with the trade relation of no Western nation with either 
Japan or China. These two nations will stimulate each 
other's power of production and of purchase, and the 
communuity of interest between them is bound to become 
an overwhelming element in the national life of each. 
There is little doubt that, with the construction of all 



342 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the railways projected in China, the world's commerce 
with her will assume a stupendous proportion, and she 
will take on a new economic aspect: the opening of the 
Peking-Hankow railway is already increasing the trad- 
ing activity along the lower Yangtsze and the export of 
products of North China ; the completion of the Hankow- 
Canton railway is expected to induce the grains of 
Hunan to go out in greatly increased quantities and its 
coal to compete with Japanese coal at Shanghai ; the 
Szechwan railway will develop the kerosene oil, rock 
salt and other rich resources of the Province, and open 
therein a large market for sugar, cotton yarn, marine 
products, and the like, from abroad; and the Tientsin- 
Pukow railway may stimulate coal mining in Shanei, 
gold and silver mining in Shantung, and agriculture in 
Honan and Kiangsu, and eventually affect the world's 
market of these products. In this coming economic re- 
vival of the East, the commerce of no other nation with 
China will compare in vitality, if not in volume, with 
that which will grow between China and Japan. 

All these conditions point to the coming of a new era 
in their relation with each other. It is more than prob- 
able that they will continue to make errors in their mutual 
relations, and the competition is expected to increase, 
and no alliance or federation is imaginable between them. 
It is therefore no prophecy, but mere common sense, to 
believe that the future years will find the two nations in 
manly rivalry, and in an increasingly common economic 
and cultural bond which is closer and stronger than that 
of either of them with any other Power. This would 
be a normal state of things, and there is nothing of suffi- 
cient power to prevent its ultimate realization.^ 

I cannot conclude this paper without a brief reference 

1 Nothing better illustrates the temporary nature of the fric- 
tion between China and Japan and their capacity eventually to 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 343 

to the imperative need, in the interest of Chinese reform 
and progress, of a good understanding of each other's 
policy between Japan and the United States. The wel- 
fare of the East would never be assured were these two 
nations unfriendly to each other in that part of the 
world, while, on the other hand, no two nations could 
have a larger influence on China's future than they. 
Without reference to persons and incidents, however, I 
venture to suggest that, in this connection, there are two 
or three circumstances which are liable to be turned to 
use by those who may be interested in alienating the two 
friendly nations from each other.- First is the beautiful 
spontaneous sympathy worthy of a great republic which 
the American nation always feels for a backward nation 
striving for freedom and progress. It is this sentiment 
which was shown to Japan until the end of the recent 
war, and which is now beginning to be bestowed on 
China as she enters upon her new career. It cannot be 
denied that certain Chinese have been playing on this 
sentiment for an interest other than that of reform, and 
it is possible that certain Americans might use the same 
means for attaching China to the United States as against 
Japan. Enough has been said, however, to suggest that 
it would be disastrous to the cause of reform and to the 
world's ultimate interest to separate China from a nation 
so closely related to her in race, in culture, and in 

become helpful rivals of each other, than these larger disputes 
in Manchuria which have been happily adjusted by a remarkable 
series of mutual concessions made by the two countries in their 
agreements of August 19 and September 4, 1909. Nor is it easy 
to find a better example than in the treatment of these agree- 
ments by the American press, of the manner in which light is 
withheld and discussion curbed by controlling interests on 
Eastern affairs of certain descriptions. The reader is referred 
to the text and an explanation of the agreements published by 
the present speaker in the Yale Review for November, 1909. 



344 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

economics, and so nearly alike in the career of reform, 
that she is borrowing from it even her principles of the 
constitution. 

Second is the still imperfect understanding of the 
Japanese history and Japanese character in the United 
States. The two nations possess at once qualities per- 
fectly intelligible and those almost incomprehensible to 
each other. Until the latter are thoroughly mastered, it 
is little wonder that motives should be ascribed to Japan 
in her relation with China and with the United States 
which may be utterly foreign to herself. 

Finally, the very principles of the new diplomacy might 
be employed for the purpose of creating a misunderstand- 
ing. This might be attempted all the more easily because 
of the two dogmas which the American public has been 
taught to believe : namely, that America alone has every- 
thing to gain by China's strength, and everything to lose 
by her weakness, while the interest of all other Powers 
is exactly the reverse ; and that the principles of the new 
diplomacy originated with the American Department of 
State. A little reflection will show the impartial student 
the absurdity of the first dogma. To say that America 
has no territorial advantage in China is not to say that 
she does not enjoy with other nations municipal and 
judicial advantages at treaty ports, which encroach upon 
Chinese sovereignty, or that certain American capitalists 
do not seek concessions for railway and other industrial 
enterprises, some of which the reactionary Chinese resent, 
and bring the Chinese finance nearer and nearer to the 
verge of insolvency. It would be impossible to demon- 
strate that America would not with other nations oppose 
a premature surrender of the present arrangement at 
the treaty ports, and that any of the more important 
nations would not with America suffer from a continued 
weakness of China, and oppose the conversion of any 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 345 

part of her territory into an exclusive economic sphere 
of any foreign Power. As for the second dogma, that 
the late Secretary Hay originated the two principles of 
the new diplomacy, and compelled other Powers to make 
agreements to follow them, a casual reading of his cir- 
culars in 1899 and 1900, and the responses of the Powers 
to that of the former year will prove that Mr. Hay 
neither originated these principles nor secured definite 
agreements regarding them from the Powers. It is not 
intended to detract a particle from the important service 
done by him in reminding .the whole world, through his 
notable act in 1899, that the growing interest of the 
powerful American nation in the Orient demanded the 
maintenance of equal opportunity in China. My slight 
studies of the period lead me to conclude that the prin- 
ciples of the new diplomacy as working theories among 
the Powers, were first clearly conceived and upheld by 
Great Britain, have been advocated with the greatest 
theoretical consistency by the United States, and have 
been practically enforced in Manchuria against Russia 
by Japan with great sacrifice, and further embodied by 
her in her agreements and declarations with Great 
Britain, France, Russia, and the United States. The 
current ideas in America about Chinese diplomacy afford 
a striking example of the way in which unhistorical 
dogmas rise and grow in broad daylight in a civilized 
society of the twentieth century. It, of course, matters 
little that the people hold to these inaccurate ideas, but 
the errors assume a somewhat serious aspect when they 
are used by interested persons as a means of propagat- 
ing the notion that America must, for the ostensible in- 
terest of the two principles, antagonize herself to the 
Power that has done by far the largest service in estab- 
lishing them and making them the comm.on faith of the 
world. The fact that a nation is working- concessions 



346 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

and has made temporary blunders in the process hardly 
constitutes a violation of the principles ; and the time is 
rapidly coming, if it has not already arrived, when this 
country with her present and future concessions in China 
will find herself sharing the same point of view. It is 
also unfair to ignore the important fact that thus far 
America has exported nothing from Manchuria, and 
that this fundamental point has been the constant de- 
terrent factor in the progress of the American import 
trade there ; while, on the other hand, Japan, in addition 
to her geographical proximity, her kinship in race and 
culture, and her efficient control of her own economic 
forces, naturally enjoys a superior advantage arising 
from the fact that she is expending in Manchuria an 
enormous amount of capital and skill, buying a large 
majority of its exports, and otherwise developing its re- 
sources, stimulating its progress, and increasing its pur- 
chasing power and general foreign trade. If, in availing 
herself of her vantage ground in Manchuria, Japan is 
actually violating the principles of the new diplomacy, 
it is high time for the United States, for the interest of 
her and the world's commerce in the Orient, to protest. 
It would be better to confess, as has done our honored 
Judge Wilfley, that it is the interest — the political and 
commercial interest — of the United States that demands 
the maintenance of the integrity and the open door of 
China, than to make unfair uses of the fair principles. 
The interest of the same United States has dictated 
different policies, according to special conditions, toward 
Mexico, toward Spain, toward Hawaii, and now toward 
China. It is one of the best things in the world's his- 
tory, I venture to think, that the Chinese policy of 
America happens to coincide largely with what the more 
permanent interest of all the world demands in the East. 
What a misfortlme to humanity it would have been had 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 347 

this country been obliged to pursue a contrary policy, 
like the one, for example, which President Polk did to- 
ward Mexico. There is no intelligible reason why Japan 
and Great Britain, at least, would not find their larger 
interest in China identical with that of the United States. 
It should be a lasting glory of America that, while 
promoting in China interests still limited to a compara- 
tively few of her own citizens, she is enabled at the same 
time to subserve the common and permanent interest of 
the world in the Orient. 

The present state of opinion in America about this 
momentous question seems to contain two tendencies 
seemingly aHke but radically opposed to each other: 
namely, one sincerely aiming at the development of the 
world's common interest in China, and the other, actuated 
by the alarm of the grave financial condition of China, 
hastening to install in her territory a large American 
interest in anticipation of a possible crisis, but with little 
regard to China's own interest in case she should resume 
all concessions at the end of their terms, and, for the 
furtherance of this policy, seeking to arouse innocent 
public sentiment along the line of national self-righteous- 
ness. The latter tendency manifests itself, among others, 
in a systematic movement through various agencies to 
propagate a sense of distrust of Japan's policy toward 
China. I am constrained to observe that all the un- 
pleasant memory of the rather unimportant Japanese 
immigration question which may still linger in the minds 
of both nations, will soon be found to be overshadowed 
by the profound irritation so persistently kept alive by 
the purposeful suspicion cast by a certain section of 
Americans upon a policy held with common accord and 
sincerity by the Emperor, the Privy Council, the Cabinet, 
the Press, and the nation, of a very friendly Power. It 
is clear that no nation can without offense continue to 



348 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

extol itself on grounds ill supported by facts, and, from 
this pulpit, to denounce, for its own want of knowledge, 
and for the interest of its few citizens, another nation 
for pursuing a policy which it has matured with scrupu- 
lous care for justice and progress, and on which it must 
stake its very destiny. To say to your neighbor that he 
is unfit to enter your house may not be proper, but there 
are circumstances justifying such conduct; the offense 
would be infinitely greater in a persistent declaration 
that the neighbor is wrong in his just living, since it is 
superficially supposed to interfere with your social in- 
terest and comfort. If the offense is fortunately not yet 
felt by him, the fact forms no reason why the disillusion- 
ment, when it does come, would not be all the more 
keen. It is astonishing how few people realize the 
colossal issues of such an affront. Intelligent Americans 
should squarely meet this great problem, and weigh the 
consequences of a misguided policy, or else they might 
find too late that the public sentiment regarding the 
Eastern Question, which appears still indefinite, had 
fallen into dangerous channels from which it was diffi- 
cult to extricate it. It is not implied that such a grave 
situation actually exists, but it would be unwise to ignore 
that the present moment is full of potentialities for good 
and for ill. It is to be sincerely hoped that, whatever 
the present degree of perversion, neither the Americans, 
nor the Japanese, nor the Chinese, will long be blind to 
the imperative need of studying the complex Eastern 
Question in all its world-wide bearing, and of under- 
standing the common and lasting interest of humanity in 
China. 

I have enumerated some of the vulnerable points in the 
relation between the United States and Japan in regard 
to China. But I again take the liberty to record my 
abiding faith in the practical and humorous turn of the 



JAPAN'S RELATION TO CHINA 349 

average American mind, as I have already done in re- 
gard to the good sense of the Chinese and the catholic- 
ity and clear vision of the Japanese. It is likely that all 
attempts to set the United States over against Japan and 
the rest of the world on the Chinese issue, will not seri- 
ously commend themselves to the Americans. It is still 
possible that the Japanese-American relations in China 
will return to the normal state of manly competition and 
sympathetic criticism. That would be the only safe 
basis of co-operation, and it is probable — there can be 
no question that it is urgent — that the entire future re- 
lation of Japan and America may be based upon that 
basis: namely, I repeat, their manly competition and 
sympathetic criticism in the East. 

In order to bring about this wholesome state of affairs, 
the one thing necessary above all else is: more light, 
greater freedom of knowing facts, about the Eastern 
Question. The American public should insist on hav- 
ing it. 



XVIII 

THE RELATION BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE 
UNITED STATES 

In the course of the last fifty years, the traditional 
friendship of the two nations on either side of the Pacific 
Ocean has continually grown and strengthened. And 
the long list of incidents which gradually cemented this 
inseparable relation, has so often been reiterated and is 
so familiar to you all, that any attempt at recounting 
it is out of place at this time. My only excuse for re- 
viewing the past as briefly as possible, is because the 
present and the future can be interpreted and guided 
only in the light of historical antecedents. 

Under the feudal regime, when our government was 
making treaty after treaty with nations of Europe and 
America, it was your official representative in Japan that 
warned us of the national danger of opium-smoking. 
When the United States legation interpreter was mur- 
dered by fanatics in our capital city, and ministers of 
other nations withdrew to Yokohama as a manifestation 
of their indignation, the same American gentleman alone 
remained in his post and did not even demand reparation 
or punishment. He simply said that he perfectly under- 
stood the difficulty of the situation of the Japanese au- 
thorities and was convinced of their sincerity and good 
faith. After the organization of the Imperial Govern- 
ment, in our long and oft-baffled efforts to revise the 
one-sided, unequal treaties, ratified in ignorance and in- 
ability under the former rule, the United States was the 
first to accept the revised treaty which abolished extra- 
territorial rights and the conventional tariff. 

351 



352 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

This very year, when Yokohama was celebrating the 
jubilee of the opening of its port to foreign trade, the 
whole nation was remembering with lasting gratitude, 
your magnanimous act of returning to us the Shimono- 
seki indemnity fund, with which the harbor of Yokohama 
was improved two decades ago, not certainly as a con- 
dition imposed upon us by your generosity, but through 
the wise judgment of the few men at the head of our 
affairs. When General Grant visited the Far East he 
endeared his name and the name of his country to mil- 
lions of hearts by arbitrating between China and Japan, 
then at difference over the question of Loochoo. What 
President Roosevelt did to put an end to the most 
stupendous warfare in modern history, is almost too 
great and too fresh in our memory to view it in right 
perspective as yet. 

In remodelling our internal affairs, our infant steps 
were guided by American teachers and advisers, almost 
in every branch of knowledge and activity. Large num- 
bers of young men and women have been trained in your 
schools and universities, and hundreds of Japanese 
visitors have been given hearty reception and liberal op- 
portunities of observing the strongest features of your 
public and private life. In this connection, both in send- 
ing out workers and receiving students and travelers, 
your New England has naturally taken the leading part, 
with its high culture, keen intelligence, liberal spirit, and 
excellent institutions. Tens of thousands of men and 
women from Japan are earning their living and freely 
enjoying the benefit of the resources and opportunities 
of this great RepubHc, whose ideals are sure to educate 
their minds and hearts into broad internationalism. 

When Japan's altered position in world politics re- 
quired reassurances of her national aim and policy, your 
Government jointly with mine declared its policy in 



JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES 353 

regard to the Pacific Ocean and China. It is simply a 
" gentleman's agreement " which shows strong evidence 
of mutual confidence between the two nations. An arbi- 
tration treaty is signed between the two nations, so that 
there could be no possible room for wicked suggestions 
and rumors of armed conflict. There is also a mutual 
guarantee of the general peace of the Pacific, and of 
steadfast adherence to those two great principles with 
regard to China which were first set forth by Great 
Britain, universally accepted through the mighty efforts 
of the United States, and finally enforced upon an of- 
fending party with the blood of the sons of Japan. Fre- 
quent exchanges of friendly visits and cordial welcomes 
have been going on, of noted individuals, of fleets and 
naval people, of parties of business men and other ex- 
perts. Reciprocal assurances of warm sentiments and 
good will have been emphatically penned and mouthed, 
not only by diplomatic and consular agents, but also by 
able writers and speakers competent to judge the true 
state of things. 

Set against this grand array of forces binding the two 
nations in the closest of friendship, all the combined 
attack by unpleasant impossible stories artfully created 
by some in some quarters, has now quieted down and is 
only a small fly on the back of an elephant. 

What else could we add to this long list of forces and 
efforts to promote and cement our traditional friendship ? 
If anything was still lacking, that deficiency is now be- 
ing made good in the institution quite recently organized 
in the business center of the city of New York, under the 
name of the Oriental Information Agency. A country- 
man of mine well known for his journalistic career is its 
director, and the Agency proposes to supply individual 
inquirers, business firms, scholastic bodies, social organ- 
izations and so on, with accurate and trustworthy data 



354 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

concerning the conditions of the Far East, commercial, 
industrial, political and otherwise. 

It will also write to papers and magazines of this 
country, and address American audiences, whenever and 
wherever it Is welcome, to give the Japanese side of the 
story of the Far East. This work is started on a business 
basis as an entirely private undertaking, but Its bearing 
upon the commercial Interest of the two nations con- 
cerned is recognized by a body of prominent bankers 
and business men of Tokyo and Yokohama, who pledge 
themselves to back the worthy scheme, if necessary, with 
pecuniary support. I venture to think that this will 
strongly appeal to those friends who were polite enough 
to say that silence was one of the few faults of the people 
of Japan. 

There is nothing so effective In enhancing the friendly 
feeling between the two nations as a correct knowledge of 
each other. Some time ago representative business men 
on the Pacific coast visited our country, and now a party 
of Japanese business men Is extensively traveling 
in the United States. I sincerely hope some arrange- 
ments may be made in the near future whereby a body 
of leaders in manufacture and commerce, together with 
a few delegates from labor, journalistic and educational 
circles, can take a tour of inspection from the Eastern 
parts of the Union to Japan and China. It would be 
a powerful aid for smoothing the way for practical co- 
operation of the two nations, just commencing their 
friendly rivalry in Asiatic markets. When your keen- 
eyed but fair-minded commissioners see at close quarters 
what was the real status of American trade in Manchuria, 
how German enterprise is eclipsing other interests in 
China proper, what are the true motives and methods at 
work there, and how Immense is the field for our har- 
monious action or good-willed emulation, I am confident 



JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES 355 

that it will advance materially, not only your national 
interest and our own, but also the cause of international 
friendship based upon a clear understanding of actual 
circumstances. 

If the development in commerce and industry even of 
such a small country as Japan affects the interests 
of America, almost unbounded in wealth and resources 
as she is, how vastly must mighty China's rise reflect on 
the future prosperity of our island empire ! And yet, 
power to produce and to imdersell implies ability to buy 
and consume. How absurd to assume that our neigh- 
bor's gain is our own loss. Through wise adjustment 
and conciliatory measures, founded upon mutual under- 
standing and genuine sympathy, I firmly believe that the 
increasing population of the earth may yet live in har- 
mony and friendship at least for a few centuries to 
come. In the meantime, mountains may be levelled, seas 
and oceans reclaimed, the conquest of air completed, icy 
poles covered with verdure, artificial rainfall wrought 
at will, so that more people could find room to live and 
more place to apply their activity. The power of human 
invention is just beginning to achieve marvels and 
miracles. 

As the powerful fleet of this country is the greatest 
guarantee to the lasting peace of the Pacific, so is China's 
national efliciency a double assurance of the safety of 
Japan's position. And what you are doing now to assist 
China, is nothing but an extension of the same noble 
principles that prompted you in leading Japan up to her 
present position. The author of " Asia and Europe " 
was probably right when he said in the preface to his 
third edition : 

" If, therefore, it is one of the permanent conditions 
of history, as this writer believes, that Europe should not 
permanently occupy Asia or Asia conquer Europe, the 



356 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

rise of Japan into a great Power must by degrees in- 
crease the difficulty for Europe of remaining in profit- 
able possession of great sections of Asia." 

The fair-minded American observer, I am sure, will 
find no cause for alarm in this possible tendency, because 
he believes and rejoices in universal progress of man- 
kind, and also because his country has never taken pos- 
session of any section of the Asiatic continent. But 
Meredith Townsend, great writer as he is, was certainly 
prejudiced where he said : " Asia, strengthened by the 
leadership of Japan, will, as I believe, recover the inde- 
pendence which she will in all human probability once 
more misuse." 

How often his race, the old continent occupied by his 
race, has misused its independence and power against 
other races and continents ! Perhaps his race-conscience 
haunts him and frightens his diseased nerves with dreams 
of Tartar invasions. China and Japan as leaders, no 
continent, no race, and no nation need fear even of a 
semblance of Asiatic incursion. 

However, things must go slowly to accustom our minds 
to an altered situation. Suppose, for a moment, that 
Japan and China acted in perfect unison at this critical 
moment, what would be the consternation and dismay of 
some of the Western Powers, " in profitable possession 
of great sections of Asia " ! From this point of view, we 
can see the hand of Providence even in the little frictions 
between the two Asiatic neighbors, now reshaping their 
mutual relations. Enough criticism and accusation we 
are receiving as it is, but the thunderbolt of fury and 
suspicion would simply clash the progress of both nations, 
were they to form, for instance, a defensive alliance! 

The same gentleman credits the Japanese with vanity. 
But is not pride the backbone of a nation as well as of 
an individual ? Our determination never to be conquered 



JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES 357 

certainly need not displease anybody. Everything is in 
a small scale in Japan — our own stature, the size of ani- 
mals and birds, our wealth and poverty, even our vir- 
tues and vices. If we have anything really big, alto- 
gether out of proportion, that is the ambition not to be 
behind any nation or race in doing what is just, good, 
and noble to do. Huge indeed is our own opinion of our- 
selves! In this respect, gentlemen, I confidently believe 
that you Americans will grudge us no amount of sym- 
pathy. Limitless in your natural resources and energy, 
tall in your person and buildings, gigantic in your 
scientific, industrial, and commercial schemes, you set 
yourselves a yet higher and mightier standard, that is, of 
representing and embodying in your national conduct 
the cream and essence of Western civilization. The 
Greco-Roman culture, ennobled by Christianity, has been 
refined and crystallized, in- its westward march, and its 
noblest expressions, such as universal brotherhood, in- 
ternational peace and justice, chivalrous magnanimity 
toward struggling weaker nations, sympathy with the 
oppressed and wronged all over the world — all these 
ideals find their staunch supporters in this most favored 
and most favorable land. 

And thus the nation of the Stars and that of the Sun, 
your country and mine, as exponents of Eastern and 
Western ideals, should continue to co-operate with all 
sympathy and forbearance. That the two nations come 
to serious collision is as impossible to conceive as that 
the sun and the stars ever should clash together. With 
a wide zone of twilight between us, we may each supple- 
ment the other in the common work set before us of 
enlightening and beautifying the world. This is what 
our hearts prompt, our reason dictates, and to which the 
mighty finger of history points. 



XIX 

THE STRENGTH AND EFFICIENCY OF THE 
JAPANESE ARMY 

The lesson of military efficiency was taught by the 
Prussians at Sadowa and Sedan not long ago. At a 
later date and on a smaller scale we saw it in the brief 
campaign of the Turkish army in Thrace. The most 
recent example is the sudden importance that Japan has 
won for herself in the world. 

About the time of our own Civil War military matters 
in Japan were much as they were in Europe during the 
Middle Ages. In one case the samurai and in the other 
the knights of old constituted a special military class 
and upheld the feudal system. Warfare consisted largely 
of individual combats in which the common people took 
no part and exerted little influence. Just as in Europe 
the power of the knights was broken at Morgarten and 
at Crecy by pikemen and bowmen, so the Japanese feudal 
system was broken when the common people were drilled 
and disciplined to fight in war. This led in the early 
seventies to the adoption by Japan of the great demo- 
cratic principle of the nation in arms, under which every 
able-bodied man is held to the service of the State in 
time of war. 

Under this idea of universal military service, which 
has been adopted by nearly every great nation in the 
world, every man is required to report for service on 
reaching the age of twenty years. If he is perfectly fit 
and if he is wanted he is enrolled in the active army; 
if not wanted but still fit he passes into one of the great 

359 



36o CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

classes of supernumerary reserves. In Japan the annual 
contingent of youths who reach the age of twenty years 
is at least 550,000 men. As this is much too large a 
number to be handled under any modern system of drill 
and training, a relatively small number is taken to fill the 
active army. Another contingent are put aside for 
partial training in the reserve, and the balance receive no 
training at all, but are still liable to be called on to 
serve as non-combatants whenever needed. 

In the active or peace army, service originally lasted 
for three years, but in 1906 a law was passed changing it 
to two years for infantry. Under this rule practically 
half of the army is changed each year, completing its 
term of service and passing into the reserve, while its 
places are filled by the youths of a new class. In the 
reserve they remain ready for call until they are forty 
years of age, when their liability is over. From time to 
time they join the colors again for short periods of train- 
ing, amounting to four periods in all of two months each. 
The total service thus in twenty years amounts to be- 
tween three and four years. In this way it is plain that 
in course of time an immense army is trained and dis- 
ciplined and kept ready for war. The amount of time 
that each soldier gives to the state during his lifetime 
is not great in the aggregate. The loss to the business 
and industry of the country is not felt, for in time of 
peace not one man in fifty between the ages of twenty 
and forty is a soldier, under arms, and not one in ten goes 
to war when the life of the nation itself is in danger. 

The army is made up of certain number of units called 
divisions, each of which is so constituted as to be a 
small army by itself, with every necessary component 
of infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineers, medical corps, 
telegraphists, and transport troops. 

A division has its home in the district where it is re- 



EFFICIENCY OF THE JAPANESE ARMY 361 

cruited, supplied and drilled. Within its storehouses 
are all the material needed to arm a double or treble force 
of reserves. 

Each division is in fact so complete in every detail, 
so near to its depots of supplies, so decentralized in its 
administration, that it only waits for a word from the 
Emperor to report itself in a few days, with full ranks, 
with every button in place, every belt full of cartridges 
and every wagon loaded. 

Nor is this an anomaly. It is not in Japan alone, but 
in many other countries that this may be done, following 
the system so carefully worked out by the Germans in 
the hundred years since they lost the battles of Auerstadt 
and Jena. 

The beginnings of the Japanese army were on a small 
scale. It was about ten years after the introduction of 
universal military service that Marshal Oyama, in 1884, 
went to Europe at the head of a commission for the pur- 
pose of studying the military systems of the world. The 
result was the adoption of the German system, which had 
just shown its efficiency in three wars in seven years. 
When he returned he brought with him as adviser Major 
Meckel, one of the brightest of the younger officers of 
the German army. 

An army of seven divisions was formed, having a 
peace strength of 60,000 men. 

Ten years later a war with China gave an opportunity 
to test the machine. About 100,000 men were sent to 
China and Korea. The resistance of China was in- 
significant, but the war showed the high quality of the 
troops in a most severe winter campaign ; it showed the 
working of the system in its multitudinous details, and 
it showed where improvements were needed. An in- 
demnity of two hundred million dollars was paid by 
China, and as the war did not cost more than half that 



362 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

amount, the money was used in betterments of every 
kind. 

The activity of Russia in the Far East and the en- 
forced abandonment of Port Arthur, left no doubt in 
Japan that another war would soon be necessary if their 
national ambition for improvement and prosperity should 
ever be realized. 

Thirteen divisions replaced the seven of 1894. Al- 
though at first sight this seems to be nearly a double 
force, there were many ways in which it was a much 
greater increase than that. There was another decade 
of hard work, barely twenty years since the idea of a 
modern army was adopted, and thirty years since the 
first idea of universal military service. Many of the 
chiefs were the sword-fighters of early days, but there 
was no lack of enthusiasm in the way in which they 
adopted the new methods. No result seems to be more 
remarkable than this, for it has long been said and be- 
lieved that military men of all others are most tenacious 
of existing conditions and most averse to change. 

The war with Russia is another story. Japan was not 
entirely ready for war. The military system had not 
been running long enough to accumulate sufficient re- 
serves of fully trained men. This was a great disad- 
vantage and probably resulted in the war ending with a 
greatly superior force on the side of the Russians. The 
last great battle was at Mukden, where the Japanese had 
more than 300,000 men engaged and 2,000 guns — many 
of large caliber. They fought for two weeks over a 
front of sixty miles, and lost more than 70,000 killed and 
wounded in that single battle. The success of the Japa- 
nese was quite uniform, their losses in prisoners and 
guns from first to last were insignificant. They won 
many great battles, often with only equal or inferior 
forces, and pushed the Russians back past Liao Yang, 



EFFICIENCY OF THE JAPANESE ARMY 363 

Sha Ho, Mukden and Tielin by the force of persistent 
and tireless attacks. The greatest tribute that they have 
received came from Kuropatkin himself, the Russian 
commander. He said : " The education of the Japanese 
was carried out in a martial spirit and on patriotic lines. 
The nation believed in and respected the army and were 
willing and proud to serve. An iron discipline was pre- 
served. They responded with unanimous enthusiasm to 
the call to arms. There were instances where mothers 
committed suicide when their sons were rejected for the 
army on medical grounds. A call for volunteers for a 
forlorn hope produced hundreds ready to face a certain 
death, while many officers had funeral rites performed 
before leaving for the front to show their intention of 
dying for their country. Those who were taken prisoners 
at the commencement of operations committed suicide. 
This was the spirit that produced regiments which hurled 
themselves upon our obstacles with a shout of ' Banzai ! ' 
and, throwing the corpses of their comrades into the 
ditch, climbed over them into our works." 

Since the war the nation has not permitted her arms 
to rust in the repose of a long peace, as so often has 
happened after successful wars. On the contrary, they 
have gone to work with the greatest energy to improve 
and increase their military establishment. The entire 
armament has been replaced, we are told, by a better rifle 
and a more powerful artillery. Additional artillery of 
heavy caliber has now become a permanent part of their 
army. Their weakness in cavalry is being remedied. 

The thirteen divisions existing in 1904 were increased 
to seventeen during the war and have now been raised 
to nineteen. This means an all-around increase of a little 
less than one-third since the war. 

These great changes evidently do not represent all 
those contemplated in the far-reaching plans of the 



364 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Japanese Secretary of War. On the contrary, it is evi- 
dent that the lack of funds has continually held him back 
and that he has been forced to delay many of his prop- 
ositions for improvement. 

The peace strength of a Japanese division probably 
fluctuates according to the plans and necessities of 
various kinds. It has probably been as low as 6,000; it 
has been over 12,000, and it is now about 11,000. 

The peace strength of the army, including numerous 
garrisons of outlying possessions, and certain cavalry 
and artillery and other troops who are not divisioned, is 
probably about 240,000 men. 

To change the army of peace to its status for war it 
is necessary to use the great hosts of trained reserves 
who have been annually discharged from active service. 
They are brought back so as to raise the strength of the 
peace division to 25,000 men in each. Thus the army all 
told will reach about 535,000 when on a war footing. 

The time necessary to make this transformation from 
the status of peace to that of war is the most closely 
guarded secret of every land. The greatest energy and 
care is exerted to reduce it because thereby they multiply 
their warlike efficiency by each fraction of a day that 
is saved. Judging by past history and what we know of 
other systems, we may say that the time necessary would 
be anywhere from one to two weeks. 

A slight calculation will show that this army of 535,000 
does not exhaust by any means the reserves of fully 
trained soldiers. Ever since the two-year service law 
went into operation, 120,000 men have been going into 
the reserves each year ; prior to that the annual contingent 
was about 80,000 for several years, and then the great 
army of more than a half million veterans of the Man- 
churian campaign is still available. So it is easy to 
suppose that the Japanese have now at least 800,000 fully 



EFFICIENCY OF THE JAPANESE ARMY 365 

trained soldiers, which is probably double the number 
they had when they entered the war with Russia. 

In time of war these trained reserves, who are not 
needed in the active army, will probably be formed into 
nineteen additional divisions according to the German 
and Japanese system, making thirty-eight divisions in 
war. 

In future it is only a matter of time when the present 
system will afford double the number of trained soldiers 
that it now will give. In other words, there will be more 
than a million and a half trained men. 

If this host of fully trained men is not sufficient, an- 
other is provided from those able-bodied men who were 
not received into the active army. The number of men 
of this class is not known, and probably changes from 
year to year for financial and political reasons. At any 
rate a supernumerary reserve is formed who receive a 
certain amount of partial training, in three periods dur- 
ing twenty years, aggregating seven months in all. The 
manner in which they are trained is to attach one hun- 
dred and fifty of them to each infantry regiment, for 
three months, replacing them by a new detail as soon as 
their period of drill is completed. 

It is not unlikely that the immense number of trained 
men which are now provided, will be considered sufficient 
and that this partially trained force will be discontinued. 
Its use has principally been to fill the ranks of the non- 
combatant troops, as transports, laborers, etc. During 
the Manchurian campaign great numbers of these par- 
tially trained men went to the front because the reserves 
of the fully trained were exhausted. 

This reduction in the term of service from three to 
two years shows the growing simplicity of what used 
to be the most difficult part of military preparation. The 
ancient Greeks and Romans spent their lives in military 



366 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

drills and exercises. The soldiers of Frederick the Great 
learned to fire a musket in two hundred motions. To 
learn to parade step it took many months. Now all the 
frills and embroidery are thrown away and only practical 
methods are used. I have no doubt that the time of 
service will be still further reduced. At the same time 
the art of war has become more difficult than before. 
Longer preparation and more intelligence are needed in 
those who prepare, direct and control the military 
energies of the people. 

The development of the Japanese navy, like the army, 
seems to be marked by ten-year periods. The navy made 
the first attempts to adopt modern ideas; 

The first warship was an American-built frigate called 
the Melacca. The first ironclad was a Confederate 
privateer named Stonewall Jackson, built in France and 
completed just before the close of our Civil War, without 
having a chance to go to sea. 

Up to 1875 the Japanese had collected about twenty- 
five ships of all sizes, with an aggregate tonnage of about 
16,000 tons. Then the true development of the navy 
began, under the guidance of British naval experts, ten 
years before Marshal Oyama made his visit to Europe. 

In the next ten years the fleet had reached 100,000 
tons and one hundred guns of all kinds. The war with 
China then occurred, and the first great battle between 
ironclads was fought near the mouth of the Yalu river. 
The war on the sea was won by the Japanese not so 
much by the power of their fleet as by the skill and dis- 
cipline of the ofiicers and men. The captured Chinese 
ships added material strength to the navy, and the war 
indemnity of two hundred million dollars gave an op- 
portunity for an extended naval and military program to 
be carried out. The program was completed ten years 
later, just in time for the great war with Russia in 1904. 



EFFICIENCY OF THE JAPANESE ARMY 367 

In that war the navy had increased many times in 
strength over that of 1894. 

Japan had a powerful fighting fleet, 14 battleships and 
armored cruisers, aggregating 154,000 tons, with 55 great 
guns, of 8 to 12 inches diameter of the bore. 

Although the Japanese were victorious, it was evident 
that they fought on a very narrow margin of naval 
strength. It was only the dispersion of the Russian 
fleet that saved the Japanese from confronting a danger- 
ous superiority. As it happened, however, the Russian 
fleet was completely defeated. Whatever weakness there 
may have been in the Japanese fleet has now been 
remedied. Since the war the navy has been largely in- 
creased. 

Five captured battleships and armored cruisers have 
been renovated and added to the fleet with an aggregate 
tonnage of 60,000 tons and 18 big guns. Four battle- 
ships have been added with about 70,000 tons and 44 
big guns, and also 4 armored cruisers with 57,000 tons 
and 16 big guns. During the war they lost 2 ships with 
30,000 tons and 8 heavy guns. At this day, instead of 
less than 160,000 tons of battleships and cruisers, they 
probably have more than 300,000 tons, and the number 
of large caliber guns has increased from 55 to 125. Two 
of the new battleships are of the Dreadnought class, but 
larger and more powerful. They were laid down and 
completed entirely in Japan. 

The income of Japan has been raised to double what 
it was before the war with Russia by governmental 
monopolies and war taxes which are a heavy burden on 
the people. No doubt the increased opportunities for 
national activity in business will bring reward in time, 
but at present the financial question seems to be a serious 
one. 

The great development of the army and navy carries 



368 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

with it a large portion of the receipts of the Government. 
For this year 1909-10 it amounts to more than eighty 
milHon dollars, which is about three-tenths of the total 
income of the country. 

The statements in this paper are all taken from pub- 
lished books and documents which are accessible to all. 
In the limited time given to a lecture, it is not possible 
to deal except in a general way with such great ques- 
tions as the military situation in a great nation. For 
those who desire to investigate the subject at more length 
the following list of references is recommended: 

The Imperial Japanese Navy, Fred T. Jane, 1904. 

America and the Far Eastern Question, T. F. Millard, 1909. 

Japan in the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, by the De- 
partment of Agriculture and Commerce, Japan, 1904. 

Imperial Outposts, Col. A. M. Murray, 1907. 

The Reshaping of the Far East, B. L. Putnam Weale, 1905. 

The Coming Struggle in Eastern Asia, B. L. Putnam, Weale, 
1908. 

Japan Year Book, 1907-8-9. 

Kuropatkin's Memoirs, 1908. 

L'armee Japonoise en 1908, par le Capitaine Bluzet. 

Journal Militaire des Armies, Etrangeres, 1907-8-9. 

Diplomatic and Consular Reports, Japan, 1909. 



XX 

THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 

jWhile Korea was never actually awakened to her op- 
portunities as a sovereign power, such awakening as she 
did experience followed as a natural result of our enter- 
ing into treaty relations with her, and thus ushering her 
from her hermit isolation into the lime-light of foreign 
intercourse. These relations, be it said, were entered 
into by her with much reluctance, and after years of 
persistence upon our part, and even then only upon our 
expressed promise to use our good offices in her behalf 
in case she should be oppressed by a third power: — a 
promise which she found to be but a poor reliance when 
threatened with the loss of her integrity. 

In citing Korea's relations with China and Japan, I 
will have to make out a rather strong case for the latter, 
showing how she was actually forced by the action of 
China, and later by that of Russia, to assume the over- 
lordship of Korea as a matter of self-protection. This 
can only seem all the stronger because of my well-known 
friendship for the Koreans and sympathy with them over 
the loss of their land. 

Were there time to cite incidents, it would be possible 
to make out a strong case for Korea, since in the past 
the conduct of Japan, both politically and commercially, 
has encouraged neither trust nor neighborly regard. 

Any attempt to point out the merits of the case, as 
viewed from the Korean standpoint, would now, how- 
,ever, be of little avail, for the weakness and corruption 

369 



370 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

of the Peninsular Government offered such a tempting 
field of operations to intriguing outside powers, that 
Japan was forced to take decisive action or see a stronger 
power entrenched in the Peninsula as a menace to her 
own existence. 

As to the Koreans themselves, they are a docile, long- 
suffering and industrious people. | Their country com- 
prises nearly one hundred thousand square miles of 
rugged mountains and fertile valleys. These mountains 
contain very rich mineral deposits, which are being mined 
— chiefly by Americans. The northern country is well 
wooded. 

The people, until in the early eighties, had little foreign 
intercourse, raising and manufacturing almost all that 
they needed. Some foreign trade sprang up with the 
opening of the country by foreign treaties, but up to the 
recent war it amounted to only about fifteen millions 
(U. S. dollars) per annum. Rice was the chief export, 
and cotton goods and such products as American kero- 
sene formed the chief imports. The country presented 
the unique spectacle of a foreign land where American 
influence was mostly felt in commercial matters, and 
where Americans led in large financial and industrial 
enterprises, such as railway and trolley building, elec- 
trical development, mining, commerce and such better- 
ments as water-works. 

The people are of Mongolian stock. They have a lan- 
guage of their own, which is quite distinct from that of 
China or Japan, while in common with each of these 
neighboring people, the educated classes understand the 
written language of China. 

They are a kindly people. We had no beggars in 
Seoul until the advent of the foreign guard, whose mis- 
placed gratuities served to organize quite a band of 
beggar children. Hospitality was universal and a serious 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 371 

drain on the well-to-do. They are polite and courteous, 
in fact from ancient times they have been known in Asia 
for their observance of etiquette and ceremony. Not 
that they are given to an undue observance of outward 
forms, but rather that they have a dignified manner of 
expressing their politeness which seems more real. I 
have seen a man get up and apologize to a bicyclist for 
being in his way and getting knocked down. 

The Koreans are simple, trusting, credulous ; rather 
inclined to look down on all not favored as themselves, 
Korean birth, residence and intelligence being to them 
the greatest consideration in this life. This leads them 
at times to assume an air of superiority that may be 
annoying to a foreigner whose sense of humor is 
deficient. 

In commerce they have had no chance, owing to their 
form of government or of governmental interference. 

As officials, they show great aptitude in getting into 
and remaining in office, and they are past masters in 
intrigue and a sort of diplomacy. I have known several 
Korean officials, however, who would compare favor- 
ably with the greatest Chinese officials I have known, 
and who would be quite capable of reaching the height 
attained of late by the Japanese. 

General Hasegawa told me of some Korean young 
men who, after attending military school in Japan, en- 
listed with the Japanese for the war with Russia, and 
were appointed lieutenants. He said these men were 
equal in every way to their Japanese fellow officers, and 
he commended them most highly for their action under 
fire and under all the emergencies of the army. 

The half-breeds that I have seen as a result of unions 
between Japanese men and Korean women, are a very fine 
class, seeming to combine the best quaHties of the two 
races. Possibly we may some day see a new race evolved 



^72 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

in that peninsula that will take a high place among man^ 
kind. 

Early History 

The early records indicate commercial intercourse be- 
tween Korea and Arabia and Egypt. The first recorded 
expedition to Japan seems to have taken place about B.C. 
97. In 202 A.D. the Japanese Empress Jingu Kogo in- 
vaded Korea v\/ith a large army and compelled the 
Koreans to submit to Japanese suzerainty by a compact 
that seems not to have been abrogated until the date of 
the modern treaty with Japan in 1876. Korea lost the 
Liaotung Peninsula to China in 1012. She is said 
to have given to Europe in iioo the magnetic compass, 
later used by Columbus in his voyage of discovery. In 
1218 Korea was invaded by the Mongols under Genghis 
Khan, and in 1273 Kublai Khan attempted to invade 
Japan from Korea. 

In 1250 the consort of the Korean ruler was a 
Chinese maid, to whom was sent from Nanking a 
beautiful marble pagoda, wonderfully carved in illustra- 
tion of the life of Buddha, This was set up on the 
present site of Seoul and still remains in position. 
fin 1443 Japan secured a foothold at Fusan, where 
sne'has remained ever since. Yasuhiro, the Daimio of 
Tsushima, was sent to Korea in 1585, but failing in his 
mission he was killed on his return; then followed the 
great and memorable invasion of Korea by Hideyoshi, 
( 1 591 -8), which devastated the whole land, destroying 
the cities and crippling industries in such a manner that 
they have never recovered. The Chinese allies sent to 
assist Korea were also defeated; Seoul was destroyed 
and Fusan was made a fortified Japanese port. 

It was following this invasion that General Nabeshima 
gathered up all the Korean potters, skilled in the manu- 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 373 

facture of the far-famed Korean pottery, and took them 
to his home on the island of Satsuma. These exiles 
taught the Japanese the art of pottery manufacture, and 
from their descendants came the delightful ware for 
which Japan is so justly famed to-day. In fact Japan 
owes much in the realms of art and letters to her ancient 
teacher, Korea. 

In 1619 Korea joined China against the Manchus, and 
while both were defeated, Korea made such a plucky 
fight, that the victorious Manchus contented themselves 
with imposing various formal marks of suzerainty upon 
the Koreans, and excused them from wearing the queue 
and from binding the feet of the women, as the Chinese 
were compelled to do. Because of their exhaustion in 
this war against the Manchus, and for the reason that 
by virtue of Korea's opposition the Manchus could not 
get on to Japan, the Japanese excused the Koreans from 
further tribute, such as was exacted by Hideyoshi. 

Europe's intercourse with Korea began in 1653, when 
the Dutch ship Sparwehr was wrecked on the island Quel- 
part. Thirty-six of her crew of sixty-four men were 
saved and succored, but not allowed to depart, except 
that eight of them finally made good their escape to 
Japan. Those who remained taught the Koreans much, 
including the manufacture of gunpowder and weapons. 
The eighteenth century was one of little molestation from 
the outside, except that several Catholic priests came 
into the country and on being apprehended were killed. 
Japanese experience with Christianity had impressed the 
Koreans with the idea that they should not admit it. 
Many Edicts were therefore issued against Christianity 
during this century. 

In i8i2 Captain Basil Hall with two British ships 
visited and surveyed the west coast of Korea. 

French priests began to arrive in Korea in the nine- 



374 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

teenth century, and the first of a number of massacres 
of these martyrs took place in 1839. As a result three 
French vessels arrived in 1846 to demand satisfaction 
for these outrages, but they were wrecked, and their guns 
were later used against the next French expedition, to- 
gether with others made in Korean arsenals from these 
as models. 

In i860 there was much excitement in Korea over the 
news of the war between China and Great Britain and 
the reported flight of the Chinese Emperor towards 
Korea; also by the Russo-Chinese treaty which gave to 
Korea a new neighbor on the north ; there was much ex- 
citement as well because of the Perry expedition to 
Japan. 

Fearing an attempt on Korea by these restless outside 
barbarians, the Koreans opened arsenals and began the 
manufacture of guns, using those captured from the 
French ships as patterns. They also fortified the ap- 
proaches to Seoul by erecting the forts on the island of 
Kangwha in the Han river, which forts we were later to 
silence. T^he attempt of the barbarians came, and we 
were to be the disgraceful agents, when in 1866 an 
American schooner, the General Sherman, reached Ping- 
yang on a filibustering expedition, and getting hope- 
lessly stranded ofif the city, the vessel was burned and all 
the crew were killed. 

Then came, in the following year, the grave-robbing 
expedition of the German-American, Ernest Oppert, who 
coveted the riches supposed to be buried in the Korean 
royal tombs, because of the custom of the Koreans of 
burying specimens of the choice ancient pottery with 
their royal dead, and as the potters were extinct, this 
ware was so valuable in Japan as to sell for its weight 
in gold. Naturally the report got abroad that Korean 
royalty were buried in gold coffins. 



i 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 375 

In 1866 a French expedition consisting of seven ships 
and one thousand men attacked the Kangwha forts in 
an attempt to obtain redress for the massacre of so many- 
French missionaries. They were ignominiously driven 
off, so that in the war between France and China in 
1884 the latter was indignant at being attacked by a 
power unable to make an impression upon so small a 
country as China's tributary state, Korea. 

The destruction of the General Sherman resulted in 
our sending an expedition to Korea under Admiral 
Rodgers in 1871, consisting of five ships, two of which 
the writer was later familiar with, the old Palos and 
Monocacy. These ships when proceeding up the river 
to get into communication with Seoul, were fired upon 
by the Kangwha forts. A landing was therefore made 
and the forts were captured after a stubborn resistance 
that resulted in the slaughter of all the native garrison. 
We gained nothing by this slaughter, and as we left at 
once and did not return, since our Government disap- 
proved of the punitive character the expedition had taken 
upon itself, the natives naturally considered they had only 
been less successful with us than they had been with the 
French, and therefore felt quite elated at having driven 
off the Western barbarians, while Japan had been forced 
to open her land, and China had been humbled by both 
England and Russia. Her own prowess served to make 
her quite haughty. 

As a result of the firing upon some Japanese naval 
surveyors near the Kangwha forts, the Japanese dis- 
mantled these forts, which we had already taken and 
supposedly ruined, but which had been partially rebuilt. 
Japan also informed China of her intentions in regard 
to Korea, and upon the advice of the Chinese, Korea 
made the treaty of 1876 with Japan which, though the 
first of Korea's modern treaties^ was really of little use 



376 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

to the Japanese, until after we had made our treaty of 
1882, and brought about general foreign relations with 
the Korean Government. 



Events Leading to the Russo-Japanese War 

This is sufficient on the earlier history of Korea, and 
I do not intend to recount the later history, but will 
touch rather upon some of the chief events that led to 
the recent war and to the final loss to Korea of the 
measure of independence she had enjoyed through so 
many centuries. 

When General Kuroda and Count Inouye anchored off 
Seoul in February, 1876, it was with the purpose of either 
making a treaty or beginning war. It turned out to be 
a peaceful mission, and the treaty was secured. 

Korea was then for the first time recognized as an in- 
dependent power. China, be it said, had been brought 
to a realizing sense of the responsibility of suzerainty, 
and found that such relations were apt to bring on ugly 
interrogations from the restless barbarian powers, for 
the French and we promptly appealed to Peking for a 
settlement of the outrages upon the former's missionaries, 
and for the destruction of our schooner and her crew. 
This realization on the part of China was the reason 
for the consummation of the treaty with Japan, as well 
as for those which followed later, as China's opposition 
had been the cause of the failure of the proposed mis- 
sions to Korea on the part of would-be treaty negotiators 
from abroad; for Korea deferred to and respected her 
" elder brother," China, as much as she ignored and 
despised Japan. 

That Korea was taken seriously in the eighties, is 
shown by the fact that she was always mentioned in a 
proposal much talked of in private, for the firm union 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 377 

of the Asiatic Powers, while several Western Powers 
made persistent attempts to enter into relations with her. 
At last through the intercession of Li Hung Chang, we 
were successful in negotiating a treaty in 1882 and 
others followed in rapid succession. 

In spite of having advised this course, China could not 
bring herself to loosen entirely her hold upon her long- 
time vassal, and compelled the King of Korea to send 
with each treaty a letter to the head of the Government 
with which the treaty was made, admitting his vassal 
position. It fell to my lot to have something to do in 
abolishing this claim, since in 1887-8 I went to Wash- 
ington with a Korean legation, and in spite of the 
most persistent demands of China, made in an attempt to 
enforce these claims of vassallage, we were finally ac- 
cepted as representatives from an independent power. 
The story of this mission to establish Korean independ- 
ence will be briefly referred to later, but it is written up 
somewhat at length in a book of mine recently published 
entitled, " Things Korean." 

A Japanese legation was first established in Seoul in 
1877, and consulates were located in the ports of Fusan, 
Chemulpo and Gensan, in accordance with later trade 
regulations. In 1882 the Japanese legation was destroyed 
and seven Japanese were killed. Minister Hanabusa 
made his escape to a British vessel engaged near 
Chemulpo in making a survey. 

The settlement of this difficulty involved the payment 
of an indemnity and the quartering of a force of three 
thousand Chinese troops in Seoul under General Yuan 
Shi Kai, who was recently deposed after having risen 
from this first prominence to be the foremost man in 
China, next to the Throne, in succession to Li Hung 
Chang. 

A new legation was built by the Japanese, only to be 



378 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

destroyed in the bloody emeute of 1884, when the Chi- 
nese and Koreans killed or drove out the Japanese. This 
affair resulted in an agreement between China and Japan, 
whereby the former was obliged to remove her troops 
from Korea, and each power covenanted not to again 
land troops in Korea, without first notifying the other; 
implying the preliminary consent of the other contract- 
ing power. It was the violation of this agreement by 
the Chinese in 1894 that brought on the Chino- Japanese 
War. 

Korea first appeared in the West when in 1883 she 
sent a mission to Washington to ratify our treaty. To 
this mission was attached Mr. Percival Lowell, the pres- 
ent astronomer. It was sent back to Korea on board 
our warship Trenton in charge of Naval Lieutenant 
George C. Foulk. The chief of this embassy, Min, 
Youg Ik, was one whose assassination was attempted in 
the emeute in 1884, and whose life I was able to save by 
sujgical means, thus getting my own start in Korea. 

{These frequent clashes with stronger powers show 
the stolid persistence of the Koreans in attempting to 
maintain what they deemed to be their rights, and in- 
dicate the reason for the struggle still going on in Korea, 
where newspaper accounts note continued activity of the 
insurgent bands, in spite of the vigilance and severity of 
the Japanese troops — this after the lapse of four years 
since the conclusion of the Russian war, and the begin- 
ning of Japanese occupation. 

The Koreans may be suicidal in their attempts, and 
their friends may wish they would submit to the inevi- 
table, yet it shows that they are not the miserable time- 
servers some superficial observers would have us be- 
lieve them to be. 1 

During the decade from 1884 to 1894 Chinese influ- 
ence was all powerful in Korea. Yuan Shi Kai, already 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 379 

referred to as the recent foremost official of China, un- 
til degraded after the death of the Emperor and Empress, 
was Chinese representative at Seoul, and as such he con- 
sidered himself his sovereign's representative in a vassal 
state and attempted to lord it over the representatives 
from other powers. 

While the Koreans chafed under this claim of sov- 
ereignty, they were obliged to acquiesce in the demands 
of Yuan, who enforced a veto on everything in the way 
of foreign relations. To test this claim it was decided to 
send legations abroad, and a minister and suite were 
named to represent Korea in England and Europe, and 
one, before mentioned, was delegated for America alone. 
At that time the British were in close relations with 
China, and they saw to it that the European embassy got 
no further than Hong Kong, where it remained two 
years and then returned from its fruitless errand. 

The mission to the United States fared better, for the 
reason that we were willing to favor this move, which 
also had the approval of Japan. As stated before, I was 
appointed to accompany them and to attend to getting 
them established in Washington, and our naval vessel, 
the Omaha, was ordered to give us transport to Japan, 
The Chinese, acting under the advice of Yuan Shi Kai, 
did all they could to stop us, but the presence of a for- 
eigner as a member of the mission proved to be an awk- 
ward complication, and we got started. As the Omaha 
steamed down the bay it was met by a fleet of six Chinese 
ships, sent to overawe Korea, and prevent the departure 
of the mission. They could do nothing but salute the 
American flag, and when the Korean passengers on the 
Omaha found that they were not being bombarded, 
but that Chinese powder was actually being burned in 
honor of the flag under which they sailed, they were im- 
mensely pleased. 



38o CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Arrived in Washington, a firm attempt was again made 
to prevent the consummation of our plans, but this mis- 
carried after much uneasiness and no Httle ingenuity, and 
a due exercise of what is well termed " American blufif." 
The matter did not rest even here, however, and on the 
return of the Korean mission to Seoul, Yuan's insistency 
was great enough and he had power sufficient to compel 
the King to banish the poor old minister. It was merely 
a form, however, for the decree was but for three days, 
and the old gentleman simply went to his country place 
near by for two nights, and the incident was closed. The 
Chinaman had saved his face — that end so necessary in 
Chinese transactions. 

1^ No one fretted more under existing conditions, and 
Chinese arrogance in Korea, than did the Japanese, whom 
Yuan treated with such contempt that he actually disre- 
garded his country's agreements with Korea, and even 
seized the telegraph rights of the country, though these 
had been granted to Japan, who had in consequence laid 
a cable line to connect their country with Fusan. 

The Japanese saw they must come to conclusions with 
China over the question of Korean sovereignty, and dur- 
ing this decade (1884-94) they devoted themselves to 
quiet preparation. They had Chinese-speaking Japanese 
disguised as natives moving about in all parts of China 
and sending reports and charts to Tokyo until they got to 
know the country and the conditions better than did the 
Chinese themselves. When they were all ready to try 
conclusions and only awaited a pretext, an excellent one 
arose in the serious uprising of the Koreans against their 
officials, which was known as the Tong Hak Rebellion 
of 1893 and 1894. 

The Japanese wisely nursed this rebellion and induced 
the chief Korean official to appeal for assistance to the 
great elder brother, China. Yuan fell into the trap and 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 381 

ordered troops to Korea without bothering to go through 
the formality of notifying Japan in accordance with the 
treaty of ten years previous, of the very existence of 
which he may have quite forgotten in his great idea of 
his own importance. 

I chanced to be dining at the Chinese legation the 
night that Yuan received a telegram announcing the de- 
parture of the first consignment of troops ; which troops 
were cleverly allowed by the Japanese to land, near Che- 
mulpo, in order that the treaty of 1885 might be actually 
broken. The receipt of this telegram seemed to cause as 
much elation to the Japanese legation officials present 
as it did depression to the Chinese, who seemed to get a 
glimpse of grave consequences in store, so that we hastily 
made our adieus. ' 

It is unnecessary to go into the details of this war 
which gave the world its first shock of surprise, because 
of the order and preparedness displayed by Japan in 
landing troops without confusion, and at once occupying 
the most important strategic points. A British steamer 
carrying a further detachment of Chinese troops to 
Korea, was sunk by the Japanese on July 25, 1894; war 
was not actually declared until August ist. 

We foreigners were much surprised by the facility 
and celerity of the movement of the Japanese troops, 
but we were so impressed with the greatness of China 
and her vast resources, that we fancied the Chinese 
would swarm over the border and drive the Japanese ofif 
the peninsula by very force of numbers. As a matter of 
fact, they never got further south than Ping-yang, 
where the undisciplined mob, following ancient methods 
with their jingals, tridents and dragon display, were 
completely routed and put on the run. That ended the 
war on land, and the sea fight was mere play for the 
Japanese. 



382 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Brilliant as Japan had shown herself in war, she was 
guilty of the most monumental blundering in matters of 
statesmanship. The lesson learned in this regard after 
the Chinese war induced them after the Russian war to 
send to Korea Japan's greatest statesman, the late 
Prince Ito. 

But in 1895 they were content to send over to Korea 
little men, who attempted to force the Koreans to do in 
fourteen weeks what had taken Japan a half century to 
accomplish. They made a strong point of compelling 
the natives to change their garb, the method of wearing 
their hair, and by such petty exactions every Korean 
was made to hate the people who had just fought a suc- 
cessful war for their independence. As a result of these 
blunders, and the fact that her fears of the great powers 
had induced her to proclaim this to be a war for Korea's 
independence, Japan got nothing in Korea as a result 
of this war, except the abolishment of the Chinese claims 
to suzerainty. A protectorate might as well have been 
established then as later, had Japan been sure of her 
standing with the powers. The greatest blunder of all, 
however, was the assassination of the Queen of Korea; 
an act which the Imperial Japanese Court sitting at 
Hiroshima found to have been planned and exectited by 
the then Japanese Minister to Korea, but for which no 
one has held the Japanese Government itself to blame, 
further than for its selection of such an old-fashioned 
conservative for so important a position as minister 
during these days of reconstruction. 

This threw Korea into the hands of Russia, the King 
having secretly telegraphed to the Czar for aid. The re- 
maining royal family escaped from Japanese surveil- 
lance in their palace and took refuge in the Russian le- 
gation, where they remained for a year and a half and 
imbibed many Russian ideas, all of which served to give 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 383 

to Russia the position of paramount influence in Korean 
affairs, 

Japan also lost the position she had acquired as a re- 
sult of the Chinese war in the Liaotung peninsula, by 
the action of Russia backed by France and Germany, 
and having by her blunders in statecraft become a negli- 
gible quantity in Korea, she had only her indemnity for 
her trouble, while forced to see Russia occupying and 
fortifying Port Arthur, building a commercial port at 
Dalny and extending her railroad lines through Man- 
churia. This Manchurian line, moreover, was guarded 
by troops to such an extent, that when I made the journey 
to St. Petersburg through Manchuria and Siberia in 1903, 
the Manchurian stations resembled fortified camps, 
showing that this railroad had other than a commercial 
significance. 
\ Japan was not the only one to blunder over Korea, for 
during the decade from 1894 to 1904, when for most of 
that time Muscovite influence was paramount in Korea, 
Russia blundered much after the style of Japan, In- 
stead of leaving as representative the man who had made 
this great success possible for his country, she sent a 
succession of representatives, each less well adapted than 
the other for the delicate task of putting the Korean 
house in order, so that it should not invite further out- 
side attention. Not content with the vast operations at 
Port Arthur, Dalny and in Manchuria, they secured a 
secret agreement covering the cession of the magnificent 
port at Masampo on the southern end of the Korean 
peninsula and almost in sight of Japan, which country 
it would menace to the death, when properly fortified 
and occupied. 

Then they secured a concession for the timber along 
the northern border of Korea, and by virtue of having 
interested the Grand Dukes financially in this enterprise, 



384 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the so-called timber company was able to override all 
other interests and to obtain a military guard, and in 
other ways to give the matter the character of a terri- 
torial occupation. All this in Korea in addition to high- 
handedness in Manchuria. 

While these events were taking place and Russian of- 
ficials in Asia seemed to consider that nothing could dis- 
turb their tenure, Japan was secretly but feverishly pre- 
paring for the great struggle she seemed to feel was in- 
evitable, and which came on as suddenly as did the Chi- 
nese War when the due pretext was provided. The rest 
you know, how Russia refused to take Japan seriously, 
and her Minister in Seoul was dining out with a gay 
party, while the Japanese troops were landing at Che- 
mulpo and Japanese ships were turning back that min- 
ister's dispatch boat on its way to Port Arthur to carry 
messages which he could not send by telegraph owing to 
the fact that the Japanese had taken possession of the 
telegraph lines. How the next day the Russian ships at 
Chemulpo were sunken wrecks, and this Minister was a 
prisoner in his own legation ; while nearly the same was 
being enacted at Port Arthur, where the swiftness of the 
Japanese blow found the Russian ships quite unprepared, 
and their officers engaged in enjoying themselves at a 
play on shore. > 

As in the case of the Chinese War, the Russians got no 
further into Korea than to Ping-yang, and it was only 
scouts who got in sight of that city. Japan made a won- 
derful winter march through Korea, but it was really 
unnecessary, as the war was soon removed from Korea 
to. be fought in the Liaotung peninsula and Manchuria, 
using Korea simply as a base. 

Following the Chinese War in 1894 the Japanese 
seemed to consider that Korea was their own, and no 
agreements were necessary. They actually surveyed a 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 385 

railway line from Seoul to Chemulpo, but had no right to 
it, and I secured a concession for this necessary enter- 
prise for an American. I may add that in arranging this 
I had to secure the assent of the Russians, and in doing 
so it became necessary to secure the reversal to a Russian 
of a Korean timber concession owned by the American 
in whose name the railway concession was obtained. 
This timber concession grew, until it became the one 
before mentioned, which involved the Grand Ducal in- 
terests and was one of the brands which started the great 
conflagration. In fact, I felt, after reading Kuropatkin's 
memoirs, somewhat as though I had been guilty of fur- 
nishing a cause, through this concession, for that war. 

Following the Russian War, however, the Japanese 
made no such mistakes. They took agreements for every- 
thing, in fact going too far in this matter, for in their 
agreements of February 23, 1904, they made such prom- 
ises of the preservation of Korean independence and 
peace, that they were obliged to stultify themselves in 
later acts and agreements. Here again they seemed to 
fear the opposition of the powers, and seemed not to 
realize the great successes that were to fall to their 
arms, and which would enable them to ignore or pla- 
cate the treaty nations. 

I have frequently been asked how the Koreans were 
faring under Japanese rule. This is a difficult question 
to answer ; the Japanese are a friendly nation, and one 
that we have helped to a position where she demands 
consideration at our hands — the consideration due a very 
sensitive nature, one which is on the qui vive to see that 
nothing due her by virtue of her newly acquired impor- 
tance is withheld from her. 

On the contrary, while it is easy to laud and commend 
Japan, no credit may come from the Koreans to any one 
speaking a good word for their country. Nevertheless, 



386 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

while I appreciate Japan, my sympathies are entirely with 
Korea. 

When one has dealings with such men as Prince Ito, 
Counts Okuma and Inouye, and other of the elder states- 
men of Japan, all is dignified, courteous and apparently 
fair, but financial and business matters must pass 
through other channels and cannot reach these high 
quarters, except on appeal through a government. 

Japanese officials in conversation with me have ex- 
pressed their regret that their people should assume such 
an overbearing manner with the Koreans. Japanese 
immigrants to Korea seem to think that as they repre- 
sent the all-conquering people who drove the enemy 
from Korea, the natives owe them profound gratitude, 
which should be shown in the surrender of property as 
well as in the observance of a most obsequious and serv- 
ile manner. 

As the Korean is somewhat stolid, he is apt to be slow 
in doing what the representatives of these new over- 
lords demand, and one of the commonest sights at a 
Korean landing or in the streets is to see big natives 
kicked and beaten by little Japanese. The strange part 
of it is, that when Americans chance to see this it rather 
heightens their admiration for the little Japanese, and 
they frequently express their contempt for the Korean 
who will tamely submit to such usages. What can the 
poor fellow do ? Should he resist he will be beaten by a 
number of Japanese, and his arrest would probably fol- 
low with the loss of his property, as well as that of his 
family, before he could secure his release from prison. 
He shows great command of himself in his ability to 
girt his teeth and bear the ill-treatment. 

As to this imprisonment and loss of property, I saw 
much of it before leaving Korea in 1905, and in speaking 
of it with my friend, D. W. Stevens, for whose coming 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 387 

to Korea I was somewhat responsible, he asked me for 
facts regarding the matter, and I secured him full de- 
tails regarding two prominent cases, which I submitted to 
him with affidavits. 

I know he did his part, but up to the last accounts 
there had been no redress, the reason being given that 
until the establishment of courts for the common people 
these matters would have to be held in abeyance and much 
suffering would result. 

I have no doubt that things will be better, providing 
the common Korean has access to these courts when es- 
tablished, and if the Japanese Government can sufficiently 
impress upon the court officials the necessity for impar- 
tial justice. From my last advices I am obliged to con- 
sider that Japanese nature has not changed, and that it 
is just as hard to-day for the lesser Japanese official to 
decide against one of his own people in favor of a for- 
eigner, especially the despised Korean, as it was when I 
had a personal knowledge of him. 

This being the case, you can readily see what the con- 
dition of the Koreans is to-day. In illustration I will cite 
one case that occurred before I left Korea and which was 
rather well known and is to the point. A degenerate 
son of a country family, after getting into gambling dif- 
ficulties, sold his father's estate to one of his Japanese 
acquaintances, giving him a forged deed for it. The pur- 
chaser went to take possession, and the old man indig- 
nantly denied that he had sold or had any intention of 
selling property that he had inherited from his ancestors. 
The old fellow was therefore strung up to the rafters of 
his house and beaten, the treatment being so harsh that 
he died soon after. I have not been informed that the 
perpetrators have been brought to justice. Some such 
cases came to my personal and official knowledge, one 
being where a Korean under similar circumstances had 



388 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

sold the house of his American employer to a Japanese 
who did not know that a foreigner was mixed up in the 
case, and very soon dropped it when he ascertained the 
facts. 

Now, I am fully persuaded that the Government of 
Japan would wish this to be otherwise. They want the 
Koreans to have as good a chance as is possible, consist- 
ent with the due development of the Japanese interests 
in that land. We have every reason to believe that the 
Japanse Government most deeply regretted the assassina- 
tion of the Queen of Korea at the instigation of her 
diplomatic Minister, but this remorse was accentuated by 
the fact that this untoward act threw Korea into the arms 
of Russia. At present there seems to be nothing that 
may accentuate any such remorse, and as it is only a 
Korean that is to be considered, any such official favorit- 
ism is not apt to be questioned very closely. 

However, the Japanese side of the Korean situation 
has been ably set forth in the Annual Report for 1907 of 
the Residency General on Reforms and Progress in 
Korea. This is a very readable report and contains a 
mass of interesting and valuable information. While 
written in the interests of the Japanese, there is an evi- 
dent desire to be just and fair and to create a good im- 
pression abroad, for which obvious purpose the report 
is published in English. 

The Japanese certainly deserve and command respect 
for their ability. They know well how to dissemble ; they 
are past masters in diplomacy ; bringing to a quick, keen 
modern training the astute methods of Asia; engrafting 
upon the patient persistence of the unhurried Orient the 
immediate decisive methods of the West. 

The ruler for whom they showed such contempt as 
to deprive him of his throne, is spoken of in the third 
line of this report as " Gracious Sovereign," and his of- 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 389 

ficials are mentioned as " patriotic statesmen." To one 
who knows both peoples intimately, and the relations 
that have existed and are now existing, this is positively 
funny. 

To one not posted there would seem to be nothing un- 
fair in the report, since disagreeable matters are either 
passed over in silence, or glossed over with such terms 
as coup d'etat, as in the assassination of the Queen, 
or " a foreign interference." Take, for example, the 
brutal manner in which the various protocols and agree- 
ments were forced upon the unwilling natives — the same 
being now used by the holders as the basis for the vari- 
ous acts of the " Korean Government," whereas it should 
read " Japanese Government." 

The blunders in statecraft following their brilliant 
war with China are dismissed with the words " after a 
brief period of service, the Japanese advisers were dis- 
missed, owing to political intrigues as well as to the for- 
eign complications of 1895 and 1896." This foreign 
complication was the active interest in and personal daily 
visits to the imprisoned Korean Court by the British, 
Russian, French and American representatives associated 
to a certain extent with the German, which activity re- 
sulted from the assassination of the Queen and the con- 
sequent trial of the Japanese minister, ending in the 
flight of the King and Crown Prince to the Russian le- 
gation for refuge and the reversal of paramount influ- 
ence in Korea to Russia. A more satisfactory statement 
follows, as a quotation from Prince Ito's speech of July, 
1907, when he says : " The identity of Korean and Japa- 
nese interests in the Far East and the paramount char- 
acter of Japan's interests in Korea will not permit Japan 
to leave Korea to the care of any other foreign country ; 
she must assume the charge herself." 

This rings true and cannot be gainsaid. No one can 



390 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

deny that Korea was in a position where she was Hkely 
to fall into the hands of some outside power. Japan 
owed it to herself in very self -protection to see that no 
one but herself should be placed in this position. She 
won magnificently by the last resort of nations, and no 
one may at present dispute her right to control the sub- 
sequent course of the Peninsular Government. 

The trouble seems to be that she promised too much, 
and was therefore obHged to resort to methods about 
which there is much dispute in order to secure the right 
conferred upon her by the verdict of war. 

As it was possibly unnecessary to announce the Chi- 
nese War as being fought to secure the independence of 
Korea, so it would seem to have been unnecessary for 
them to promise to " guarantee the independence and 
territorial integrity of the Korean Empire." This, how- 
ever, was on February 23, 1904, at the beginning of the 
war, when the outcome was uncertain, and the good will 
of the powers was earnestly desired. With later brilHant 
military success, this article had to be controverted by 
subsequent ones, the methods of obtaining which were 
open to serious criticism, but which quite did away with 
the idea of independence, and made the Japanese the 
practical rulers in Korea ; while the Treaty Powers, 
though still having their treaties in existence, held them 
in abeyance by their acquiescence in this overlordship. 

It may be noted in passing that it was not Great Brit- 
ain, the ally of Japan, who took the initiative in this 
acquiescence, but our own Government that had pledged 
itself by treaty to come to the assistance of Korea if she 
were oppressed by a third power. I understood at the 
time that our British friends were not well pleased with 
our precipitateness in thus surrendering to Japan and 
forcing the hands of all the other powers. 

As the result of the convention of November 17, 1905, 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 391 

the foreign legations were withdrawn from Seoul and 
upon the Japanese resident devolved the " general con- 
trol of all business relating to foreigners and foreign 
consuls in Korea, with the exception of such as pass 
through the foreign representatives resident " in Japan ; 
" the discharge of all functions of supervision hitherto 
devolving on the Imperial authorities," the control of 
the army, and, in fact, he, the resident, becomes the Ko- 
rean Government. 

Much land was necessary for military purposes, roads 
and public improvements instituted by the Japanese. This 
was taken in many cases in a manner giving rise to much 
complaint on the part of the native owners, who claimed 
repeatedly that they had not been compensated at all, or 
if so, only in a meager way. This may have been due 
to the method of payment through native sympathizers 
with the Japanese, who may have kept the major portion 
of the money for themselves. 

I noticed, that after the war with China in 1894, the 
Japanese authorities made the mistake of placing them- 
selves almost at the mercy of a few Koreans, who could 
speak Japanese, and were not men of the highest char- 
acter. In this manner many of the mistakes were com- 
mitted and much injustice was done to the natives. I 
understand that much the same condition prevails now 
in Korea, which is unfortunate. The Japanese do not 
acquire Korean readily, and comparatively few of them 
can converse in that language; naturally they are at the 
mercy of the interpreters, and in a land of such constant 
neighborhood feuds it is to be expected that the work of 
the informer will be overdone and much injustice worked 
upon innocent natives, who may be at enmity with one 
who has the ear of the present ruling class. 

Under the caption " Sanitation " in this very readable 
report for 1907 it is stated, " a hospital and a medical 



392 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

school to promote vaccination were first established in 
1897 under the advice of the Japanese." 

In pondering over this statement I wondered if it might 
not mean that such an institution was first established 
by Japanese in 1897. But in the next section it is stated, 
" until recently Korea possessed no adequately equipped 
hospital on a large scale." This is an unfortunate claim, 
for the Severance Hospital, built and maintained by the 
Presbyterian mission in Seoul, is a large brick building, 
fully equipped and doing an extensive work for natives 
and Japanese. It had from the start two male foreign 
physicians and one to two female doctors, besides a 
staff of native assistants and nurses. A Japanese doc- 
tor stated to me of this institution, that he knew of no 
better equipped one for its size in Japan, and he com- 
mented very favorably upon its size. 

The report states that the new Japanese hospital dur- 
ing 1907 gave free treatment to 2,974 Koreans. I my- 
self introduced vaccination and quinine into Korea, and 
in the year 1885, twenty-two years earlier than this re- 
port, I treated over 11,000 natives free in the Korean 
Government hospital, which was the forerunner of the 
Severance hospital, and which has been in continual op- 
eration in Seoul from 1885 to the present day, treating 
Koreans from all over the country, as well as thousands 
of Japanese. 

I sirnply mention this as showing the apparent one- 
sided nature of this very readable report of the Japanese 
residency, as it covers matters that came under my per- 
sonal knowledge. 

The report states that " attention was never seriously 
paid to the matter of ' water works,' until the Japanese 
municipal council in Seoul held a meeting to discuss 
this subject on January 29, 1904, and decided to build a 
reservoir on Nam San for the purpose of supplying the 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 393 

Japanese settlement with water at a cost of 100,000 yen. 
The measure was not carried out, however, owing to a 
protest from Messrs. Colbran and Bostwick, an American 
firm/ which claimed the exclusive privilege of construct- 
ing water works in Seoul." 

Since I made this protest as United States Minister I 
know something about the matter. The facts are that 
from the time when as Secretary to the Korean legation 
in Washington in 1888 I had tried to interest capitalists 
in the project of supplying pure water to the residents of 
Seoul, the necessity for which I had seen when acting 
in a medical capacity, and after having passed through 
the awful cholera epidemic of 1886, the subject was 
never out of my mind, even when later I was attached to 
the American legation. As a result, in February, 1898, 
the firm of Colbran & Bostwick was induced to take up 
the project, which they have since carried to a brilliantly 
successful termination. We disliked to interfere with 
the small project of the Japanese municipal council, as 
the need for a water supply for that community was most 
evident; but this was not the only attempt that would 
have resulted in leaving the American concessionaires 
with no field, or a very restricted one, for their product ; 
for a British syndicate was on the ground and striving 
hard to obtain a counter concession; all infringements 
had therefore to be resisted. 

Still it sounds harsh to read in this report that " at- 
tention was never seriously paid to the matter," and the 
fact that this, the first pure water supply, furnished by 
Americans and equal to the finest to be found anywhere, 
was completed and in operation in the city of Seoul when 
this report was made, might at least have been men- 
tioned. 

Having succeeded so brilliantly in their war with Rus- 
sia, and Korea having dropped like a ripe apple into the 



394 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Japanese lap, it is of course annoying for them to find 
Americans heading great mining, electrical and develop- 
ment works in that land, where the Japanese naturally 
feel that all such enterprises should fall to them. 

But we were the pioneers there and they will reap the 
benefit of our earlier efforts to quite an extent ; why not 
then give us the credit for this awakening of Korea even 
though she failed to better herself and improve her op- 
portunities when awake? 

". I am extremely sorry for Korea and the natives, with 
■v^J^hom I spent so many years, and for whom I entertain 
such sincere aflfection. I would not like, therefore, to 
say anything that might seem to indicate a desertion of 
them in their hour of bitter trial. At the same time jus- 
tice compels me to admit that their present condition is 
largely the result of the unbridled corruption and mis- 
rule of their own officials, and some nation was bound to 
take charge of them. England might have done it at 
one time, but she eliminated herself, and it became a 
matter between Japan and Russia. The former won by 
her brilliant feats of arms; but greatest of all was Ja- 
pan's good sense in taking the psychological moment in 
which to stop fighting, and to sue for peace on almost 
any terms. 

Korea's condition, even after things have adjusted 
themselves, will continue to be bad, since with the best 
intentions the Japanese Government will not be able to 
fully control her undesirables in that conquered land. 
Yet perhaps on the whole the ordinary native will not 
fare much worse than he did under the old regime, and 
many will fare better, while others may attain an afflu- 
ence which was quite impossible under the former native 
rule. 

Still they are a stolidly persistent people, with a cen- 
turies old hatred for the Japanese, and this hatred will 



THE AWAKENING OF KOREA 395 

be increased by constant friction with overbearing in- 
dividuals, as well as by acts — even of justice — on the 
part of their Japanese overlords, which acts will seem 
to the prejudiced or uninformed native anything but just 
and will tend to keep alive the old flames, so that when 
< opportunity offers uprisings will recur, and if Japan 
ever becomes embroiled in any foreign war, Korea may 
be expected to take advantage of that occasion to do her 
/ *>. utmost to cripple the Japanese regardless of what may 
I be the result in new oppressions or new overlordship. 

During my twenty-one years' residence in Korea, I 
saw three great decennial overturns in that land. In 1884 
I saw the Chinese drive the Japanese ignominiously from 
the Peninsula, causing them to leave their dead to be de- 
voured by the dogs in the streets ; ten years later, in 
1894, I saw the tables turned and the vast hordes of the 
Chinese utterly routed and put to flight by the Japanese ; 
and in another ten years, namely, 1904, I saw the mighty 
Russian colossus overturned by this nation newly risen 
to power. 

The international adjustments have been necessarily 
rearranged; vast sums have been expended and still are 
to be expended in military preparations. The nerves of 
the nations are set on edge, and every one seems to be 
groping and uncertain as to what will happen next. 

The humiliation of Russia has largely destroyed her 
vast powers in maintaining peace, and allowed Germany 
to take such an aggressive stand as to have become the 
bugbear of Europe. Commercial lines have been oblit- 
erated ; England, who depended so much upon the Chi- 
nese trade to keep her mills open and to meet her increas- 
ing budget, now sees the new power she helped create 
wresting this trade from her and compelling unheard-of 
taxes at home. 

Every little while we have our own tremors and 



396 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

begin to talk battleship construction and an increased 
army. 

Korea is a very little country to have caused all this 
commotion among the. governments, but the excitement 
can easily be traced to the Chino-Japanese War of 1894, 
and Japan's emergence as the dominant of the Oriental 
nations. It will be strange if that Korean Peninsula — 
the battle ground of the past twenty-five centuries — does 
not again feel the martial tread of neighboring armies, 
and find herself under a new lordship, or, more prob- 
ably, serving as a buffer state between her great neigh- 
borsf^*^ 



XXI 

THE JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 

FAmong the present-day problems of a political char- 
acter there are few more difficult than those encountered 
by Japan in its attempt to establish a truly successful 
protectorate over Korea. What has been called the 
" benevolent assimilation " of Oriental peoples by West- 
ern nations, but which is seldom to any considerable ex- 
tent purely benevolent and which has never yet resulted 
in any close approach to perfect assimilation, is no easy 
task, even under the most favorable conditions. And 
there are certain reasons why in this particular case it is 
especially difficult, by whatever nation the attempt is 
made. Some of the more important causes of this 
difficulty are the following: The long-continued tra- 
ditional imbecility and corruption of the Korean Govern- 
ment, and the abject poverty, total ignorance, unsani- 
tary and immoral filthiness, the gross superstition, and 
generally degraded condition of the great body of the 
people. The low estate of the Korean populace for the 
past five hundred years can scarcely be exaggerated. 

The difficulty of establishing and successfully conducting 
a Japanese administration over Korea is further enhanced 
by the long-standing enmity between the two peoples. 
I am myself of the opinion that, in the past history of 
their relations, Japan has treated Korea with more for- 
bearance than would have been exercised under similar 
circumstances by any nation of Europe, or even by the 
United States. But however this may be, it cannot be 
denied that the attitude of the Koreans toward the Japa- 



398 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

nese has hitherto been, in general, one of unreasoning 
and bitter hatred; and of the Japanese toward the Ko- 
reans one of scornful pride or pitiful scorn. Such feel- 
ings are plainly not favorable to successful administra- 
tion, much less to " benevolent assimilation," of one of 
the two peoples by the other. 

Again, the monarch whom the Japanese Government 
had sworn to protect and whose family it was pledged to 
continue on the Imperial throne, was, until he was forced 
to abdicate by his own ministry, a practically insuperable 
obstacle to the reform of the government and to the up- 
lift of the people of Korea. 

Another source of difficulty for the Japanese adminis- 
tration in Korea came from those, not Koreans, who were 
interested in defeating the plans of the Resident-General. 
Not only was there the same call by Japanese for a force- 
ful control of Korea under the military arm, the disap- 
pointment of which led to the Satsuma Rebellion, but 
there was also a considerable party who were active and 
clamoring for the privilege of " exploiting " the now de- 
fenseless Koreans. Moreover, some of the most severe 
and puzzling embarrassments which Marquis Ito en- 
countered in the earlier years of his administration came 
from the injudicious or selfish attitude and action of 
certain foreign residents in Seoul or visitors there — 
traders, promoters, representatives of the press, diplo- 
mats, and even, in some cases, teachers of morals and re- 
ligion. 

No small proportion of the difficulty accompanying the 
Japanese administration in Korea has also been due to 
the history, the characteristics, and the conduct of the 
Japanese themselves. During all their history they have 
had no experience in establishing and administering 
provincial governments, protectorates, or other similar 
political enterprises; and, consequently, they have no 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 399 

large body of skilled and trained men for the different 
branches of service required by such administration. 

To be sure, the work of Japan in Formosa, under Baron 
Goto, has been so successful as to excite well-merited ad- 
miration; and the same thing has thus far been even 
more true of the work of Prince Ito and his coworkers 
in Korea. But how much of this is chiefly temporary and 
due to the extraordinary fitness of the individual placed in 
supreme control? Perhaps only time and much more 
experience can answer this question. That the Japanese 
failed rather conspicuously when they had their chance 
after the Chino-Japanese War, can scarcely be denied: 
nor can it be denied that, in spite of the enormous diffi- 
culties of the situation at that time, the conspicuousness 
of their failure was largely due to their want of experi- 
ence and of tact, and even to more serious moral defi- 
ciencies. Under the severe discipline of the past fifteen 
years, and with the broader outlook and saner vision 
which this discipline has done something important to se- 
cure, Japan has undoubtedly learned much for the relief 
of excessive " cock-sureness," and for the abatement 
of unwarrantable pride. 

These sources of the difficulties besetting the Japanese 
administration in Korea combined to produce what the 
Resident-rGeneral more than once complained of to me as 
constituting the greatest, the most insuperable of the ob- 
stacles in the way of his benevoldnt plans for Korea. 
This was the need of a competent and trained and trust- 
worthy personnel. Among all the Koreans, there was 
scarcely a single person to be found who could be trusted 
with a responsible position of any character. Such as it 
seemed most reasonable to select were deterred from 
accepting office under the Japanese, by the fear of being 
denounced as traitors or even made the objects of 
assassination. '7 



4O0 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Passing by, for the present, all minor forms of diffi- 
culty, I think it fair to say in a preliminary way, that the 
period from the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War to 
the conclusion of the Convention of November 17, 1905, 
and its going into operation, does not properly belong to 
the " Japanese Administration in Korea." It was rather a 
period of military occupation. By the protocol of Feb- 
ruary 23, 1904, the Imperial Government of Japan guar- 
anteed the independence and territorial integrity of the 
Korean Empire: on the other hand, the Government of 
Korea placed its territory under the control of Japan for 
offensive and defensive purposes, as against Russia, and 
agreed to adopt the advice of Japan for the improve- 
ment of its own administration. As is customary and 
almost inevitable under such circumstances, not a few 
wrong deeds were committed, and some outrages perpe- 
trated during these twenty months. These were chiefly 
of two kinds — unjustifiable appropriation of property, and 
violence toward persons. With reference to the former, 
I quote the words of the late Mr. D. W. Stevens. " There 
can be no question," says Mr. Stevens, " that at the out- 
set the military authorities in Korea did intimate an in- 
tention of taking more land for their uses than seemed 
reasonable. They proceeded upon the principle that the 
Korean Government had bound itself to grant all land 
necessary for military and railway uses, and itself to in- 
demnify the owners — an assumption which was technic- 
ally correct. But the owners, knowing the custom of 
their own government under such circumstances, were 
hopeless of obtaining anything like adequate redress. 
This, it should be remembered, happened during the war, 
when martial law was in the ascendant." With the com- 
ing of peace and the establishment of civil administra- 
tion under Marquis Ito, other counsels prevailed. Not 
only was the intention to appropriate other large tracts 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 401 

of land abandoned, but the military were required to be 
satisfied with amounts greatly reduced from those which 
had been originally staked off. From this time on, in 
the great majority of cases a fair price, and in some 
cases a truly extravagant price, was paid for all lands 
belonging to private owners. In judging of the com- 
plaints on this score, it must always be remembered that 
the Koreans are traditionally and habitually given to 
issuing false or forged deeds, and to claiming and con- 
ferring title where no such right exists. 

Of crimes of violence during this period of military 
occupation there was undoubtedly a large number; but 
they were rarely due to the action of the military or civil 
officers of the Japanese Government. The extreme diffi- 
culty of suppressing or punishing them is well illustrated 
by the reply of one of these officials to some missionaries 
who, justly indignant, complained to him of the way cer- 
tain of their converts were being treated by the Japanese. 
" I know," said this official, " that I have more than 
forty of the worst rascals in Japan in my district ; but I 
have prison accommodations for less than half of them. 
What shall I do with the remainder ? I cannot very well 
take them into my own family." Since the proper Japa- 
nese administration in Korea began, the Resident-Gen- 
eral has made every effort to ferret out, suppress, and 
punish all this kind of behavior ; and in this effort he has 
uniformly been inclined to deal most severely with of- 
fenders among his own countrymen. In this connection 
two things must be borne in mind, of which His Excel- 
lency more than once reminded me, during my intimate 
relations with his administration. At first, the foreign- 
ers in general, and especially the missionaries, would 
neither themselves examine with thoroughness the com- 
plaints of the native, nor would they give him the op- 
portunity to examine them, before spreading them all 



402 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

abroad. But no one can have the most superficial ac- 
quaintance with the Koreans without finding out that, 
with few exceptions, they are, either unintentionally or 
deliberately, given to falsehood, and quite sure to exag- 
gerate wildly even when they have an intrinsically good 
cause. What is even more important, but has been uni- 
formly overlooked or forgotten by the critics of the 
Japanese administration in Korea, the Resident-General 
could no more deprive any meanest Japanese subject of 
life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, 
than could the Governor of the Philippines, any member 
of this assembly who might happen to be visiting or 
resident in those islands. 

About one other matter I think there will be universal 
agreement. This is the sincerity, devotion, and self- 
sacrificing benevolence of the Resident-General himself. 
As one who had the opportunity for a most intimate in- 
sight into his mind and heart, I do not hesitate to say 
that his attitude toward the common people of Korea, 
in their wretchedness and degradation, was as truly 
Christian in spirit as that of any of my missionary 
friends who were resident in the country. 
'' The Japanese administration in Korea, properly so- 
called, should be divided into two periods : the first of 
these extends from the time of the original compact on 
the night of November 17, 1905, to the new agreement 
of July 24, 1907; the second period extends from the 
latter date down to the present time. By the terms of the 
original compact the Japanese Government in Korea was 
definitively substituted for the Korean Government in all 
matters affecting the relations of foreign countries and 
their nationals to the Peninsula. The meaning of this 
was perfectly clear. Neither China nor Russia nor any 
other foreign nation could in the future operate in any 
way in Korea to the injury or prejudice of the safety and 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 403 

superior interests of Japan. This change of re- 
sponsibility was promptly accepted without dissent or 
formal protest by the various governments of the 
civilized world. But the protocol of February 23, 
1904, still remained in force ; and this, it will be remem- 
bered, bound the " Imperial Government of Korea to 
place full confidence in the Imperial Government of Ja- 
pan and adopt the advice of the latter in regard to im- 
provements of administration." Moreover, the protocol 
signed in the following August had pledged the Korean 
Government to engage " a Japanese subject " as finan- 
cial adviser, and a foreigner, to be recommended by the 
Japanese Government, as councillor on all foreign af- 
fairs. It will readily be seen, then, that the Japanese ad- 
ministration in Korea had an ever-present, embarrassing 
problem on its hands, which was due to the inevitable in- 
termixture of cases and interests, where its rights and 
duties were in part absolute and in part only advisory. 

By the agreement of July, 1907, however, Japan be- 
came more completely responsible for the success or the 
failure of all kinds of administration in Korea. This 
agreement established a complete protectorate of Ja- 
pan over Korea. It made the Japanese Resident-Gen- 
eral the uncrowned and untitled, but virtual, king — re- 
sponsible to his own Home Government, which, in its 
turn, is pledged to use every effort to secure the integ- 
rity of the Korean Empire and its Imperial house, to 
carry out the treaties with foreign nations affecting Ko- 
rean interests, and to do its best for the economic, judicial, 
educational, and social improvement of the Korean peo- 
ple. Given time enough, there is not the least doubt that 
the world will hold the Japanese chiefly responsible for 
the result. But, how long is " time enough " ? Let us 
say: Not less than one hundred years. 

And now we will take the remainder of the space al- 



404 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

lotted to us for a brief and imperfect, but, I trust, accu- 
rate statement of what has been up to the present time at- 
tempted, and in a fairly resultful way accomplished by 
the Japanese administration in Korea. And we will be- 
gin with the important and fundamental subject of 



Finance and Reforms of the Currency 

It is impossible to exaggerate the deplorably chaotic 
condition of the Korean finances when Mr. Megata be- 
came the financial adviser of the Government. There 
was really no standard for the currency, and only cop- 
per cash and nickel coins were in circulation. The cash 
were of different sizes and weights and fluctuated in 
value from lOO per cent, to 60 per cent, premium. Dur- 
ing the war, when the Japanese army bought timber to 
the value of 10,000 yen, in the interior, it was necessary 
to charter a small steamer and fill it full of cash in order 
to finance the transaction. On the other hand, the nickels 
were so extensively counterfeited, in China, Japan, and 
especially in Korea, that they lost almost all intrinsic and 
stable value. In addition to this coining of money as a 
private enterprise, the Korean Government was accus- 
tomed to loan its coining machine to so-called " promoters 
of the minting industry," for a money consideration. 
Under such circumstances the establishment of a sound 
and legitimate currency was inevitably accompanied by 
much complaining and by some real hardship. History, 
however, will have few more illustrious examples of the 
honest and skillful solution of a most perplexing finan- 
cial problem than will be ultimately credited to Mr. 
Megata. The old nickel coins and the copper cash have 
been withdrawn from circulation to the extent, up to 
January i, 1908, of 298,870,000 in number of the former, 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 405 

and of the latter, to the value of 1,386,312 yen. At the 
same date, the circulation of the new Korean coins had 
reached the sum of 4,100,175 yen. 

Until recently, the Koreans had little or no conception 
of the business of banking. At the time of the inaugura- 
tion of the currency reforms, in 1905, various monetary 
systems were started, and by January, 1908, Korea had 
one central bank, three ordinary banks with two agencies, 
nine agricultural and industrial banks, with seventeen 
branches and agencies, seven note associations, twenty- 
one local associations for money circulation, and eight 
warehouses with various branches and agencies. In 1905 
the Dai Ichi Ginko was made the Central Bank of 
Korea and the Government Treasury. Besides its prin- 
cipal branches in Seoul, Fusan, and Chemulpo, it had on 
July of this year (1908) eleven other branches in less 
important centers. In addition to these banking facili- 
ties, the postoffice treasury agencies did business to the 
amount of 7,394,712 yen in 1907 as against 77,088 yen 
in 1906. 

The Dai Ichi Ginko is, however, a purely Japanese in- 
stitution, and therefore under certain obvious disad- 
vantages as constituting the permanent Government 
treasury of the Japanese administration in Korea. One 
of the last official acts of Prince Ito, accordingly, was to 
bring about the founding of a New Central Government 
Bank of Korea. The shareholders in this bank are lim- 
ited to the Imperial Governments of Japan and Korea and 
their subjects. The terms of its founding are, as to their 
principal features, such as obtain in the Bank of Japan; 
and Dr. Ichihara, who had his education in economics 
and finance in this country, is its governor. 

In intimate relations to, and dependence upon, the 
matters already considered stand 



4o6 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Reforms of Taxation and the Management of the Public 
Revenue 

Before the Japanese administration in Korea, the 
method of collecting the taxes was highly irregular, 
totally confused, without any uniform supervision, and 
as a natural result, characterized throughout by official 
corruption and extortion. The state revenues had been 
collected either by the local magistrates or by commis- 
sioners, ordinary or special, dispatched by the Imperial 
household; in either case, the primary object of the col- 
lector was the plunder of the common people. By the 
organic regulations promulgated in September, 1906, tax 
assessors, principal and subordinate, were established in 
the various districts ; the officials engaged in the duty of 
collecting the taxes were required to wear uniform ; and 
Japanese financial " councillors " were attached to the 
Korean officials. In the sequel of the new agreement of 
July, 1907, the Japanese councillors were appointed to 
financial posts, as Korean officials, their function be- 
coming that of actively conducting the financial admin- 
istration, hand in hand with the native officials. In June 
of 1908, the collection of such miscellaneous taxes as 
had hitherto been managed by the household depart- 
ment was transferred to the Department of Finance. 

The policy of the Resident-General with reference to 
reforms of taxation is thus definitely stated in his own 
words in his report for the year 1907: "As to amend- 
ments of the taxation system, the Japanese financial ad- 
visers, at the suggestion of the Resident-General, con- 
fined their reform measures to preventing evasions of 
the tax-paying obligation, and to insuring justice and 
equity to taxpayers as far as possible : they enacted new 
regulations only when necessary in consequence of some 
lack in the existing tax-system, and they avoided intro- 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 407 

ducing any radical change or establishing any new taxes, 
lest these might irritate the people and bring about popu- 
lar agitation." 

By far the most significant item in this feature of ad- 
ministration, both for the Government and for the people, 
is the land-tax. According to ancient Korean custom, 
this tax is levied on the basis of a unit, the so-called 
kyel, which is divided into six grades depending upon 
the natural fertility of the soil, the facilities of irrigation, 
the lay of the land, etc. But the measuring of the land 
is exceedingly rudimentary and lends itself to both ex- 
tortion and fraud. The surveys are five centuries old. 
Accordingly, the Japanese administration is having new 
surveys made, and new adjustments of the burdens of 
taxation. Of course, it encounters the opposition and 
complaints which belong to all such efforts at the reform 
of taxation. In the process it has already discovered 
about 1,000,000 "concealed kyels," or measures of land 
fraudulently left unregistered by the local magistrates. 

The entire land-tax for 1908 is stated at 6,640,388 yen, 
or a little more than thirty cents in our money, per head 
of the population. Next to the land-tax in interest, as 
bearing on the whole body of the people, is the house- 
tax. According to the last reports available, this was 
placed at 80 sen, 2 nn, per household, or about eight 
cents of our money per head of the entire population. 
The customs receipts of Korea did not come under the 
direct control of the Japanese administration until after 
the new agreement went into effect. 

In reforming the Korean finances the Japanese ad- 
riiinistration has not failed to give attention to matters of 
economy in expenditure. The most salutary of these 
economies have been connected with the reform of the 
Korean Court. From the horde of servants and officials, 
superfluous, useless, or even thievish, which surrounded 



4o8 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the ex-Emperor, the household department, up to June 
30, 1908, had dismissed 2,166 male servants, 232 court 
ladies, and 317 "detectives"; six months following this 
date there had been added to this number 1,643 rnales, 
making a total of 4,358 persons in all. Another method 
adopted for conserving and increasing the future 
revenues of the country has been the transfer of 
much property from the control of the Emperor to the 
control of the state. As a result of a care- 
ful investigation, 75,123 cho (one cho = about 
two and one-half acres) of fields, fifty-four cho 
of forests, and 178 houses — all this property totaling an 
estimated value of 17,336,099 yen, besides thirty palaces 
and shrines which were disused and had fallen into decay, 
were transferred to the State. 

The following table brings the data regarding the lease 
of the State lands up to May 30, 1909 : 

Petitions received: Japanese, 56,587; Korean, 49,832 (did) 

Petitions accepted: Japanese, 1,629; Korean, 4,194 (cho) 

Petitions returned: Japanese, 22,454; Korean, 9,751 (cho) 

Leases now granted: Japanese, 142; Korean, 2,439 (cho) 

The politically significant thing about these figures is 
the much larger proportion of cases in which the Ko- 
reans, rather than the Japanese, have had their petitions 
favorably considered. 

The Korean Budget for 1909, as published in the Seotil 
Press of December 31, 1908, stood as follows* 

Ordinary revenues, 13,848,443 ; with ordinary expendi- 
tures of 15,982,434. 

Extraordinary revenues, 7,586,280; with extraordinary 
expenditures of 6,286,221. 

Total revenues, 21,434,723; total epxenditures, 22,- 
268,655; leaving a deficit of 833,932. (The figures are 
all in yen. ) 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 409 

The most important part to us, financially, of the finan- 
cial administration of the Japanese in Korea is its pres- 
ent and prospective influence upon 



The Foreign Trade of Korea 

There is a very complete summary of the entire sub- 
ject in the Seoul Press of February 20, 1909. In 1908, 
vessels to the number of 6,224, with a gross tonnage of 
2,507,117 tons, entered the six open ports of Korea; of 
these vessels, 2,940, or nearly one-half, made port at 
Fusan. 

For the year 1908, the total value of the foreign trade 
of Korea amounted to yen 63,687,114, including the value 
of goods, gold, silver and specie. 

In viewing the value of the foreign trade according 
to countries, (A) Japan takes the largest amount of the 
export trade of Korea with yy% of the total value for 
1908 {y6% in the previous year). Next comes China 
with 16%, and all other countries do not exceed 7% of 
the whole. 

(B) In the import trade, Japan also takes the first 
place with 59% of the total value of the imports, and 
Great Britain comes next with 16%, while China and 
the United States proper have each about 10%, and all 
other countries together 5% of the whole. 

In this connection it is pertinent to quote the follow- 
ing from one of the official reports of the Resident-Gen- 
eral. It is published under the title:- 

Guarantee of Alien Rights 

" The so-called ' open door ' policy in Korea has been 
from the beginning maintained by the Japanese Govern- 
ment. In both the treaties of alliance between England 



4IO CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

and Japan, concluded on January 30, 1902, and on Au- 
gust 12, 1905, respectively, adherence to that policy was 
a fundamental key-note of the engagements. In the lat- 
ter treaty especially, Japan solemnly and explicitly pledged 
herself to observe ' the principle of equal opportunities 
for the commerce and industry of all nations,' while 
Great Britain recognized the right of Japan to take 
measures for ' the guidance, control, and protection of 
Korea.' " The Marquis then goes on to quote the cir- 
cular note addressed to the Treaty Powers, only five 
days after the convention of November 17, 1905, in 
which the Imperial Government of Japan declared that 
" in assuming charge of the foreign relations of Korea 
and undertaking the duty of watching over the execu- 
tion of the existing treaties of that country, they will 
see that those treaties are maintained and respected; 
and they also engage not to prejudice in any way the 
legitimate commercial and industrial interests of these 
powers in Korea." The Marquis then adds : " Since the 
establishment of the Residency-General in Seoul, the Res- 
ident-General has faithfully observed this principle of 
his Government, and exerted his power and influence 
along the line of the ' open door policy.' " I believe 
that this declaration understates the truth; and that, in 
fact, the Japanese administration has treated the doubtful 
and even illegitimate claims of other foreign promoters 
more leniently than the similar schemes of the Japanese 
themselves. 

The plans of the Japanese administration for the 
economic reform and development of Korea have been 
greatly interfered with, and in some respects thwarted, 
by the insurrection, which arose in the summer of 
1907, and which can be said to have been only recently 
nearly or quite extinguished. Whatever may be thought 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 411 

of the wisdom and tact of the Government, both as 
respects time and method, in disbanding the Korean mob 
of armed men, which existed under the name of " the 
army," — and this was the immediate and ostensible cause 
of the original outbreak — there can be no doubt about 
the shameful fact that the affair had been for a long time 
fostered by the injudicious utterances or deliberate in- 
trigues and falsehoods of a few foreigners resident in 
Korea — prominent among whom were certain subjects 
of the two nations supposed to be most friendly to both 
parties whose interests were supreme in favor of peace. 
How heavily this insurrection cost both Japan and Korea, 
it is impossible to estimate precisely. The military ex- 
penditures of Japan in Korea for the year 1906-7 
amounted to 3,572,544 yen; and for 1907-8 to 3,444,628 
yen. From the beginning of the insurrection up to 
August 31, 1908, they lost in killed and wounded, 423; 
and of the 8,126 disabled by sickness, 797 died. For the 
same period the total casualties of the insurrectionists 
were 13,014. For the second period, extending from 
September i, 1908, to February 28, 1909, the losses 
among the Japanese soldiers were 45 killed and 157 
wounded; and those of the insurrectionists were 8,719 
killed and 2,230 wounded. These figures, however, by 
no means tell the whole of the sad story. Almost from 
the first the disbanded Korean soldiers were joined by 
that large number of bandits and highway robbers which 
from time immemorial have flourished in Korea ; and not 
only so, but they speedily made bandits of themselves. 
The amount of suffering and loss which they have occa- 
sioned to their own innocent fellow countrymen is diffi- 
cult to estimate. But the following table compiled by 
the Japanese Chamber of Commerce at Mokpo shows 
the extent of damages they have inflicted on Japanese 



412 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

and Koreans during the three months between January 
and March this year, in a single district : 

Japanese. Koreans. 

Cases of incendiarism against... 4 2 

Number of houses destroyed due 

to incendiarism 8 4 

Amount of money taken from. . 28 yen. 1,294 y^w. 

Estimated losses caused to build- 
ings of 900 yen. 1,760 yen. 

Estimated losses caused to prop- 
erties of 3,623 yen. 1,786 yen. 

Miscellaneous losses 247 yen. 

killed. wounded. 

Number of Japanese..-. 4 11 

Number of Koreans 36 16 . 

As a most serious indirect result of this condition, 
many Koreans have had to have their taxes either abated 
or wholly remitted ; and the Government has been obhged 
to spend considerable sums for the relief of distress, or 
to keep the people, where their homes have been burned, 
their crops destroyed, and their laborers murdered, from 
actual starvation. 

The financial and economical side of the Japanese ad- 
. ministration in Korea has been dwelt upon at such length 
because it is really the most difficult of all the problems, 
and indeed underlies the successful solution of them all. 

We consider now 



The Public Improvements, Made or Projected 

Of these, one of the most important, of course, is the 
support and extension of the railways. These are now 
nationalized under the system of government control 
adopted by Japan, and are being improved and extended 
at great expense. In the fiscal year of 1906 the sum for 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 413 

improvements was given at 7,787,225 yen, and the profit 
at 219,260 yen. But in the fiscal year of 1907, while 
the appropriation for improvement rose to 11,361,375 
yen, the profit of the year before was converted into a 
loss of 76,988 yen. In February of 1907 the Imperial 
Diet of Japan authorized the Railway Bureau of the 
Residency-General to expend during the coming four 
years the sum of 21,873,144 yen upon the construction 
and improvement of railways in Korea. Whether this 
expenditure ever becomes a profitable investment for 
the Government of Japan, otherwise than as facilitating 
its control and development of Korea, there can be no 
doubt of the immense benefit it is bringing to the Korean 
people themselves. It is also going to afiford to the 
world a practically all-rail route between Japan and 
Europe. The latest report is to the efifect that the 
Korean railways are to be made a part of the South Man- 
churian system. Great improvement in the through 
traffic may reasonably be expected on the completion of 
the Antung-Mukden railway; and it is to be hoped that 
this, together with internal developments, will speedily 
justify financially the expenditure of the 16,586,000 yen 
which has been appropriated to the Seoul Wiju line for 
the year from April i, 1909. The Koreans are fond of 
traveling; and the railways of the country carried in all 
141,260 passengers during the month of June last. 

In close connection with the railways stands the de- 
velopment of the PUBLIC HIGHWAYS. Hitherto, with one 
solitary and not at all creditable exception, there have 
been no passable, not to say decent, highways of great 
length in all Korea. Work was commenced in 1906 for 
the repair and improvement of the highways ; but up 
to last year only about forty miles were completed. This 
year some seventy miles more of these roads will be 
put in good order. The main roads are to be about four 



414 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

ken (i ken=6 feet), and the inferior roads two ken in 
width. 

As an expensive enterprise, which is, however, abso- 
lutely demanded for the development of the foreign trade 
of Korea, must be considered the improvement of the 
harbor facilities and the building of light-houses at 
various points along its very dangerous coast. At 
Fusan, which is one of the finest natural harbors and is 
destined to become one of the principal ports of the Far 
East, extensive works are planned and are already well 
advanced. These include the reclaiming of ground, 43,- 
399 square metres in area; the building of a pier 900 
feet in length, the inner side of which will form an iron 
quay capable of accommodating two vessels, drawing 
nearly 24 feet, at the same time ; and the building of a 
new and greatly enlarged custom house. By the end of 
1903 there were five small light-houses on islands in the 
harbor of Chemulpo. Under the Residency-General the 
Bureau of Light-houses, after a careful survey, mapped 
out the Korean waters into ten navigation lines, and 
drew up plans for 50 light-houses, 5 light-buoys, 5 
beacons, 54 buoys, and 16 fog-signals, for which i,- 
266,272 yen were to be expended during five years begin- 
ning with 1906. By December 31, 1907, 35 fight-houses, 
5 light-buoys, 3 beacons, 50 buoys, and 11 fog-signals 
were completed. 

The Construction of Public Buildings 

for every kind of public use has afforded another diffi- 
cult problem in economy for the Japanese administra- 
tion in Korea. These were not only necessary for the 
decent and successful administration of every depart- 
ment of Government, but even more necessary for the 
economic and educational development of the country. 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 41S 

The severe winter in Korea makes unsuitable for public 
uses buildings made of wood. In order to get at a 
cheap rate a sufficient supply of good brick, a station 
was established with the latest model of brick-making 
machinery, which is capable of turning out 30,000 bricks 
a day. As a branch of this enterprise, a factory for 
making drain-pipes and tiles has also been established. 
In this connection I will notice only the construction of 
buildings for the Printing Bureau, where Korean young 
men and girls are being instructed and employed in the 
various sections of the book-binding, paper-manufactur- 
ing, and lithographic works. In this establishment, at 
the end of the year, 1907, there were at work 256 Koreans 
under 75 Japanese experts. According to the Seoul 
Press, date of May 23, 1909, the plans of the Government 
for continuing this important branch of its work during 
the coming fiscal year include the expenditure of over 
2,800,000 yen. 

After Korea joined the postal union in 1901, the state 
lost annually from 140,000 yen to 290,000 yen, with a 
very poor service and without any prospect of improve- 
ment. On the establishment of the Residency-General in 
Seoul, the charge of the posts, telegraphs and telephones 
in Korea was transferred to the Bureau of Communica- 
tions and placed under the control of the Resident-Gen- 
eral. The statistics up to the year 1908 show that, while 
the expenditures decreased from 2,581,023, during the 
fiscal year beginning April i, 1905, to 2,203,831 yen 
(estimated) in the fiscal year of 1907-8, the earnings of 
the system rose from 769,650 yen in 1905, to 1,398,923 
yen (estimated) for the fiscal year of 1907-8. In his 
report of the latter year, the Resident-General an- 
nounces the prospect that the postal, telegraphic and 
telephonic services in Korea will some day in the not 
distant future become self-supporting. 



4i6 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

All these provisionary expenditures of the Japanese 
administration in Korea are, of course, justified only 
as they are part of its plans for 



The Development of the Agricultural, Industrial and 
Other Resources of Korea 

Among such plans, those for the improvement of 
agriculture are pre-eminent; for Korea is, and for a 
long time must remain, a land of small farmers. To 
afford the common people an opportunity for improving 
their old-fashioned and defective methods of agriculture, 
a model farm and experiment station was established 
at Suwon, about twenty-five miles from Seoul, in June, 
1906. The farm is most beautifully situated and com- 
prises 217 acres. In April, 1907, there were attached to 
it seven competent Japanese experts and twelve Korean 
and Japanese assistants. Here experiments are made in 
the cultivation of rice, barley, sugar-beet, tobacco, cotton, 
and other staples ; seri-culture is undertaken ; and the 
improvement of live stock is attempted. Since this date, 
a horticultural farm of thirty acres has been established 
at the village of Tukto, four miles to the east of Seoul. 
Both these farms were at first treated with suspicion and 
contempt by the classes for whose benefit they were 
especially designed — the seeds and plants that were 
freely distributed being thrown away by the recipients. 
But when the farmers saw the specimens of grains and 
vegetables and trees which were raised on these farms, 
and learned, of the immensely increased profit, per acre, 
of such agriculture and horticulture, the applications for 
instruction and assistance became satisfactory. It is 
found that apple, pear, and peach trees grow three times 
as fast in Korea as in Japan; the climate is well suited 
for grapes, but not for oranges. This spring 7,000 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 417 

young trees were eagerly sought and carried off by the 
former opponents of the plan; and there is even talk of 
making Korea the fruit-garden of the Far East. 

In Korea more than half of the total area of the coun- 
try is covered by mountain ranges. Owing to indis- 
criminate felling of trees, without public supervision, 
which has gone on for centuries, most of the mountain 
slopes, with the exception of those along the Yalu and 
Tumen rivers, the Chili-san range, and the island of Ouel- 
part, have become denuded of trees. Thus the people 
are unable to build better houses than mere huts, and 
they even suffer greatly from lack of fire-wood. Worst 
of all is the injury to agriculture, of which this process 
of deforestation is now the chief cause, owing to dev- 
astating floods in the rainy season and lack of water 
for irrigation in the dry season. To remedy this evil 
three model forests were established in 1906; 17,880,000 
young trees, comprising pine, oak, larch, chestnut, and 
cryptomeria, were imported and planted at a cost of 
293,000 yen. In the spring of 1907 three nursery gar- 
dens were established and the seeds of a large variety 
of trees were sowed in them, and excellent results ob- 
tained. A school of forestry was attached to the 
agricultural station at Suwon; a bureau of forestry 
has been established ; forestry offices have been estab- 
lished in four places ; appropriation for further investi- 
gation has been made; and laws have been enacted to 
protect the forests in the future. 

Pit is now known that the coveted wealth of timber 
along the Yalu valley was the secret but principal reason 
which led the Russian Government to violate its pledge 
to withdraw its troops from Manchuria, and which thus 
precipitated the Russo-Japanese War. In order to pre- 
vent this wealth from further foreign exploitation, the 
forestry undertakings along the Yalu and Tumen rivers 



4i8 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

were made a joint enterprise of the Japanese and Korean 
Governments, with a capital of 1,200,000 yen, each party 
contributing one-half. It was expected, of course, that 
the earliest developments would be accompanied by a 
loss; but so unexpectedly successful was this enterprise 
that, for the fiscal year 1908, instead of an expected loss 
of 11,670 yen there was an estimated profit of 96,000 ji/^n^ 

The climate and soil in the southern part of Korea 
seem well suited to the growth of cotton, and in order 
to settle the feasibility of its culture by the best modern 
methods and on an enlarged scale, an association of 
Koreans and Japanese interested in this industry was 
formed several years ago. In 1906 this association was 
subsidized to the extent of 100,000 yen, on these con- 
ditions : that American upland cotton be introduced ; that 
the seed obtained from the crop be distributed among 
planters at large ; and that a ginning mill be established. 
In one year the number of Korean planters increased 
from 348 to 850; but it is probably still too early to 
predict what the ultimate result will be. 

The Japanese administration in Korea has also been 
compelled to do much difficult work, in its efforts to 
deal with the mining industry in the peninsula. It 
found the titles to this sort of claims almost inextricably 
mixed up, the greater number of them having been ob- 
tained either by bribery or some other form of illegiti- 
mate influence, or else at a price much below their proper 
value. With Korean and Japanese promoters of this 
class, the dealing of the Government could be compara- 
tively simple, direct, and effective; but with those from 
the Treaty Powers of Europe and America, the case 
was not the same. The results of the attempts at re- 
form were likely to be more embarrassing when this 
class of promoters tried to interest their home govern- 
ments in enforcing or urging their claims. It was one 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 419 

of the chief satisfactions of the Resident-General, at the 
time of his recent resignation, to know that all the 
affairs connected with this form of the country's indus- 
tries seemed fairly on the way to a permanent settle- 
ment. 

The following table taken from the Seoul Press of 
July I, 1909, gives the area, in tsuho, covered by the 
different kinds of mines in the country at large (i 
tsubo=6 feet square) : 

Number. Area. 

Gold mine S3 31,908,141 

Silver mine 5 924,340 

Copper mine 25 10,869,763 

Iron mine 36 11,797,238 

Lead mine 2 1,557,821 

Graphite mine 34 13,043,412 

Zinc mine 2 1,574,490 

Coal mine 21 13,368,094 

Petroleum mine 5 4,394,694 

Mercury mine i 67,120 

It has always been impossible to tell how much gold 
has been actually mined and exported, so persistent and 
successful are the devices for concealment. But the gold 
purchased last year by the different branches of the Dai 
Ichi Ginko amounted to 964 kzvan (each kzvan^Sl 
pounds), with a value of approximately 5,000,000 yen. 

The most extensive coal mines in Korea are along the 
valleys of the Ta-dong river and its tributaries, in the 
neighborhood of Ping-yang. 

The Ping-yang coal mines were taken in control by 
the Government in August, 1907, and by December of 
the same year 35 foremen and 425 miners, 90 per cent, 
of whom were Koreans, were employed in developing 
the works. Last year, from January to June, 17,292 
tons with a value of 77,814 yen, and from July to 



420 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

December 29,195 tons with a value of 131,377 IV^^ — 
making in all 46,487 tons, worth 209,191 yen — were 
mined there. 

As a means of attracting foreign capital to Korea, 
under the advice of the Resident-General, the laws regu- 
lating mining concessions and claims were revised in 
July of last 3^ear. Under the new laws then enacted 
and now in force, the transfer of mining rights and the 
creation of their hypothecation do not require the sanc- 
tion of the Government. The former provisions by 
which permits could be canceled or mining operations 
suspended by order of the Government, were either re- 
stricted or struck out altogether. In the following 
August an ordinance was issued exempting from duty 
the importation of machinery, instruments, and other 
necessary articles used for mining purposes. The ex- 
portation of copper and copper concentrate was already 
duty-free. 

Another important matter for securing desirable 
economical and political results has been the regulation 
of the FISHING INDUSTRY. No more infamous scheme 
for robbery of the people was encountered by the Japa- 
nese administration in its earlier days than that con- 
cocted by the joint enterprise of Koreans and Japanese 
for getting control of the entire fishing industry over all 
the waters and fish-markets of Korea. Laws on this 
subject have now been put in force by the Japanese 
administration. 

In addition to the schemes for increasing the revenues 
and developing the resources of Korea, the management 
of which is kept more immediately under the control of 
the Residency-General, there are others which are fos- 
tered by it, on conditions definitely fixed by their 
charters. Of these the most important is probably, the 
so-called 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 421 

Oriental Development Company 

This company is formed with the avowed purpose of 
assisting in the economic development of Korea. 

It announces that its operations shall comprise (i) 
agricultural; (2) sale, purchase and renting of lands nec- 
essary for purposes of development; (3) exploitation and 
control of lands necessary for purposes of development; 
(4) construction, sale, purchase and renting of build- 
ings necessary for purposes of development; (5) collec- 
tion and distribution of Japanese and Korean settlers 
necessary for purposes of development; (6) supplying 
to settlers and farmers in Korea of articles necessary 
for purposes of development and distribution of articles 
produced or acquired by them; (7) and supply of funds 
necessary for purposes of development. In addition, as 
secondary operations, the company may engage in fish- 
ing and other enterprises necessary for the development 
of the national resources. It is to be under the strict 
control of the Korean Government. 

In this connection I wish distinctly to deny the charge 
which has been so persistently reported by interested 
parties, that the Government is bent upon a course un- 
favorable to the coming to the country of foreign capital 
for investment there. On this point I will quote the 
testimony of our countryman, Mr. W. D. Townsend, 
who went to Chemulpo to open a branch of The Amer- 
ican Trading Company in 1884 and has been there 
ever since. Mr. Townsend assured me that the honor- 
able business firms were pleased with the Japanese pro- 
tectorate; although unscrupulous promoters did not, as 
a matter of course, enjoy having their schemes for 
plundering the Korean resources interfered with by the 
Japanese administration. 

Most difficult and yet important of all the tasks before 



422 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

the Japanese administration in Korea has been, and I 
suppose for a long time will continue to be: 



The Establishment and Enforcement of a' Legal Code 
and the Reform of the Public Justice 

This colossal task involves three important particulars : 
(i) The separation of the judiciary from the executive 
branch of the Government; (2) the codification and pre- 
cise definition of the existing customs and regulations, 
so far as this is possible, and the enactment of the new 
statutes which have become necessary under the changed 
circumstances; and (3) the establishment of law courts 
and the reform of judicial procedure — especially among 
the local magistrates. 

In Oriental countries generally, the judiciary is not 
separate from the executive; and, formerly, this was 
especially true in Korea, where provincial governors and 
local magistrates regularly discharged judicial functions 
in their executive capacity. Early in his administration 
Marquis Ito became convinced that " so long as the judi- 
ciary branch of the Government was not separated from 
the executive, the evils and abuses of the old system, 
which are so deeply rooted, could not be fully removed." 
Accordingly at the time of the new agreement he se- 
cured the pledge of the Korean Government to bring 
about this separation. A beginning was made under the 
regulations enacted on December 2y, 1907. These es- 
tablished a court of cassation in Seoul ; three courts 
of appeals ; eight local courts ; and one hundred and 
fifteen district courts. In this way Korea adopted the 
so-called " three-trial system," which is that in practice 
in Japan as well as in Continental Europe. Recent 
measures, which will be referred to further on, have now 
more completely achieved this eminently desirable result. 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 423 

The codification of a legal system for modern Korea 
would seem to be accompanied by almost insuperable 
difficulties. In Korea civil law guaranteeing private 
rights had hitherto practically no existence. To these 
rights the maladministration of the officials paid scanty 
or no attention; and the people dared not complain 
against official extortion. Bribery was everywhere prev- 
alent ; and especially in the palace compound itself. 
Although a code of criminal law was enacted as late as 
April, 1905, the death penalty was not confined to mur- 
der. Torture was frequently practiced. 

The question at once arose, whether a wholly new code 
— presumably that existing in Japan — should be enacted 
" in the lump," so to say, and enforced upon the Korean 
people; or whether the attempt should be made, so far 
as possible, to reduce to system and to improve the 
existing customs and laws. Happily, for the final re- 
sult, the latter of the two plans was adopted. To this 
end, Dr. Ume, professor in the Law College of the Im- 
perial University of Tokyo, one of the leading framers 
of the Japanese civil code, was invited to proceed to 
Korea. His first work was to draft an " Immovable 
Property Law." The fundamental purpose of this law 
was to guarantee to both natives and foreigners legiti- 
mate rights of ownership in real estate. To meet the 
immediate needs of the new courts which were to be 
opened, the criminal code then existing was placed 
under expert revision ; and a code of procedure ap- 
plicable to both civil and criminal cases was compiled as 
a temporary measure. 

But to obtain intelligent and just judges was of all 
things perhaps the most difficult. Until very recently in 
Korea there was no such thing as a barrister to defend 
a suspected criminal ; a witness was in many cases con- 
sidered a particeps cnminis; and torture was a customary 



424 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

means for procuring evidence. At first a Japanese legal 
assistant was appointed to each court connected with 
the officers of the governors and prefects ; and a " police- 
adviser" was stationed in each district to act as assist- 
ant to the magistrate of that district. But this, although 
some good results followed, was found to be an irritat- 
ing and insufficient remedy. 

The most desperate demand for judicial reform in 
Korea comes from the ignorance, corruption, and extor- 
tion of the local magistrate. It therefore has become 
necessary to deprive him of all unrestricted judicial 
functions whatever. 

A reorganized police system was a necessary adjunct 
of the measures instituted by the Japanese administra- 
tion for the reform of the public justice in Korea. This 
reorganization took place as follows : 8 police stations, 
4 branch stations and 40 sub-branch stations, under the 
charge of the metropolitan police board ; and 20 stations, 
39 branch stations, and 297 sub-branch stations, in the 
other provinces. The numbers of Japanese who have 
been appointed to the Korean police force are in all, 24 
inspectors, 115 captains, 1,698 constables, 54 physicians, 
and 12 interpreters; while the Korean members of the 
force number 17 inspectors, 97 captains, 3,057 constables, 
and 4 interpreters. Under the present system the 
Koreans have one Japanese officials for each 2,727 units 
of the population, the total Korean population being 
9,781,671. In connection with this reform of the judi- 
ciary system, stand the plans which are formed and as 
rapidly as possible are to be carried out, for the build- 
ing of new prisons, and the more sanitary and humane 
care of the prisoners. Already, in many places the 
Koreans themselves are resorting to the Japanese rather 
than to their own magistrates for escape from the evils 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 425 

of bribery and extortion, and for the better administra- 
tion of justice. 

It would seem that, in spite of considerable improve- 
ments already secured by the new judiciary system, and 
a certain growing acceptableness of it on the part of the 
common people, the administration has found it neces- 
sary to the more perfect maintenance of a system of 
public justice, to take — at least until the Koreans them- 
selves can be trained to fitness for it — the entire matter 
under its more immediate and exclusive control. The 
latest news from the Far East — as late indeed as the 
latter part of July — brings the announcement of a *' New 
Japanese-Korean Convention " on this subject. Of this 
convention, the following three articles are the most im- 
portant : 

ARTICLE III 

The Japanese courts in Korea shall apply Korean laws 
to Korean subjects, except in cases specially provided 
for in agreements or in laws and ordinances. 

ARTICLE IV 

Korean local authorities and public functionaries shall, 
according to their respective functions, submit to control 
and direction of Japanese competent authorities in Korea 
and render assistance to those authorities in respect of 
administration of justice and prison. 

ARTICLE V 

The Government of Japan shall bear all expenses con- 
nected with administration of justice and prisons in 
Korea. 

It is evident from the terms of this " New Conven- 



426 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

tion " that the successful issue of attempts to reform the 
public justice in Korea will henceforth more than ever 
depend upon the training, tact, and spirit of equity and 
good-will of the Japanese themselves. 

Underneath and back of all the plans for the reform 
and uplift — economic, judicial, social, and moral — of the 
Korean people, lies, of course, 

The Improvement and Development of the System of 
Public Education 

Up to the establishment of the Japanese protectorate 
over Korea, the mission schools have provided the 
only means for supplying, even inadequately and imper- 
fectly, this imperative need of better facilities for both 
the public and the higher education. 

It has been the wise policy of the Japanese adminis- 
tration in Korea to make primary the education of the 
people for the successful pursuit of those employments 
which should engage them in after life. 

In August of 1906, general regulations for govern- 
ment and common schools, based on the educational 
system of advanced countries, were issued by Imperial 
Edict and by decree of the Minister of Education. A 
voluntary system of attendance was adopted, since the 
poverty of the Koreans made impracticable at present a 
decree of compulsory attendance; but to encourage at- 
tendance, both tuition and text-books were made free. 
The common-school course is limited to four years ; and 
in this course, instruction is given in morals, the lan- 
guages of Korea, China, and Japan, in arithmetic, geog- 
raphy and history, physics, drawing, and physical exer- 
cises. Sewing and other domestic accomplishments are 
added for the girls ; while music, manual training, tind 
lessons in agriculture and industry can be taken as 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 427 

voluntary courses. Under this system all private schools 
are required to register an account of their equipment, 
curriculum, etc., in order to obtain recognition from the 
Government. Since the enforcement of the present law, 
up to the middle of last May, 782 existing, and 307 new 
schools — exclusive of 745 religious schools — making a 
total of 1,834, had registered; and of these the Govern- 
ment had been able to examine 440 and accept 337. In 
a speech a month later. Minister of Education Yi stated 
that the number of applications had already reached 
1,900, of which the Government had been able to deal 
with only about 600. 

The number of common scnools up to the year 1907 
was nine Government schools, including that attached 
to the normal school, and forty-one public schools ; but 
this year public common schools were established in 
eight other places. With the growing demand for the 
education of women, in April of 1908, the " Girls Higher 
School Ordinance " and the regulations for its enforce- 
ment were promulgated ; and the Seoul Higher School 
for Girls was established at the same time. In January 
of 1908, the different Government language schools were 
combined and named the " Seoul Government Language 
School." 

Besides the common schools, the following educational 
institutions deserve a special mention; and, first 

The Normal School 

In order that the training of teachers for the public 
school system might be uniform and competent, the Gov- 
ernment instituted in August, 1906, a normal school ; and 
at the same time it promulgated an edict that no private 
normal school would be recognized, but that every nor- 
mal school must be founded by either the central or the 



428 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

provincial Government. In this school the regular course 
is three years ; tuition, board and clothing are given to 
all regular students. A nev^ building for this school was 
completed in December, 1907. By the end of the month 
there were 106 students enrolled, under five Japanese 
and three Korean teachers. In this connection it is per- 
tinent to mention the existence in Seoul, at the end of 
the year 1907, of one high school and five foreign lan- 
guage schools. 

One of my pleasantest experiences while in Seoul was 
in attendance on the opening ceremonies of 

The Government School of Industry or Polytechnic 

School 

Under centuries of misrule and plunder the artistic 
and artisan work, for which Korea was at one time rather 
celebrated, had become almost extinct. The Japanese ad- 
ministration in Korea has undertaken to revive and im- 
prove it. Six courses were to be given in this institu- 
tion : namely, in (i) dyeing and weaving, (2) keramics, 
(3) metal work, (4) wood work, (5) applied chemistry, 
and (6) civil engineering. At the first entrance exam- 
ination in April, 1907, there were 1,100 applications, of 
which only 74 were passed upon favorably. In addition 
to free tuition and lodging, an allowance of six yen each 
month is made to each student. The report of the re- 
sults already reached in April 22, 1909, was most en- 
couraging. 

A School of Commerce 

was opened in Seoul last December, which owed its in- 
ception to the generous gift of a citizen of Tokyo, Mr. 
K. Okura, who gave for this purpose the sum of 200,000 
yen. 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 429 

Prominent among the educational matters undertaken 
by the Japanese administration in Korea for the bless- 
ing of the common people is the institution of 



A Medical School 

which is attached to the Tai-Han hospital, and which is 
designed to give a modern medical training to Korean 
doctors and nurses. Its teaching force in January, 1908, 
consisted of three Japanese professors, three Korean 
doctors, and one American physician, Dr. Scranton, who 
had been for many years medical missionary of the 
American M. E. Church North. The course of instruc- 
tion extends over four years for medicine, three years 
for pharmacy, and one year for mid-wifery and nursing. 
Those who pass the entrance examinations with good 
marks are received as Government students, all their ex- 
penses for clothing, dormitory and tuition being given 
to them; while in the cases of other students the fees 
only are remitted and text-books are lent. 

I have spoken of the medical school as attached to the 
Tai-Han hospital. Up to the institution of this enter- 
prise there was no adequately equipped hospital on a 
large scale, although there were several fairly well-con- 
ducted hospitals organized by foreign missionary socie- 
ties or by the municipalities of the various Japanese 
settlements. In accordance with the advice of the 
Resident-General, the Korean Government decided in 
1906, to establish one large new hospital by combining 
the three small hospitals which had hitherto been under 
its control. During the first year 175 in-patients were 
received by the Tai-Han hospital ; and 2,767 out-patients 
were treated, of whom 1,928 were Koreans. 

The formerly prevailing filthy conditions of living, 
and the ravages of filth-diseases among the Koreans are 



430 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

difficult even of imagination by one who has not traveled 
either in that country or in China. To improve these 
conditions and prevent these ravages, the Government 
loaned large sums of money for installing water-works 
in three of the principal cities of Korea; to Chemulpo 
the sum of 2,170,000 yen; to Ping-yang 1,300,000 yen; 
and as a subsidy to Fusan, 350,000 yen. 

The difficulty of enforcing measures for the improved 
sanitation of the country is greatly increased by the 
poverty, and especially by the superstition of the people. 
To diminish the scourge of smallpox the Government 
undertook to enforce vaccination. Between May 5 and 
June 22 of this year, under the jurisdiction of the police, 
5,245 persons were vaccinated in Chemulpo; but when 
the attempt was made to carry out the regulation in a 
neighboring village of forty houses, the entire village 
fled precipitately to the mountains, under the impression 
that the Japanese intended to paralyze them by injecting 
poison into their veins. Measures have also been en- 
acted and to a certain degree enforced for the suppres- 
sion of cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery and diphtheria. 

There are several large and indefinite interests, which 
are, however, vitally related to the success of the Japa- 
nese administration in Korea, that cannot be treated in 
the statistical way. Among these is its relation to the 
foreign religious teachers and missionary bodies estab- 
lished in Korea. From the first, the attitude of the 
administration, so far as the Resident-General could 
control it, has been toward these moral and religious 
forces, characterized by justice, generosity, and the efifort 
to secure their active co-operation for the good of the 
Korean people. It was in part to assist in bringing about 
an understanding of this attitude that His Excellency 
invited me to Seoul as his guest in the spring of 1907. 
What was then doubted by many is now, I believe. 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 431 

doubted by none who are competent to give a judgment. 
Prince Ito has labored throughout, with unsparing in- 
dustry and consummate skill for the welfare of the com- 
mon people of Korea, His settled policy toward the 
Christian missionaries is clearly defined in the closing 
words of his report published in English about six 
months ago. 

Almost exactly a year later, in December of 1908, the 
same distinguished authority, in addressing the delegates 
who had come from every quarter to Seoul to attend the 
opening exercises of the recently completed Y. M. C. A. 
building, and at a banquet given by His Excellency in 
their honor, spoke as follows : " In the early years of 
Japan's reformation the senior statesmen were opposed 
to religious toleration, especially because of distrust of 
Christianity. But I fought vehemently for freedom of 
belief and propagation, and finally triumphed. My 
reasoning was this : Civilization depends upon morality, 
and the highest morality upon religion. Therefore, reli- 
gion must be tolerated and encouraged. It is for the 
same reason that I welcome the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association, believing that it is a powerful ally in 
the great task I have undertaken in attempting to put 
the feet of Korea upon the pathway of true civilization." 
On the other hand, it should be remembered that the 
Resident-General had been sorely tried by the conduct 
of the Koreans, who had been using this and other 
Christian organizations for secret purposes of sedition 
and assassination; by the fact that not all the foreign 
missionaries had uniformly confined their offices to the 
moral and religious sphere, but had on occasion taken an 
active part in politics ; and by the fact that reports detri- 
mental to his plans — sometimes true, indeed, but oftener 
false or grossly exaggerated — were being sent abroad 
without giving the Government a chance for investiga- 



432 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

tion, and for the punishment of those found guilty. It, 
therefore, affords a peculiar pleasure to the writer to 
record the fact, that at the present time the forces of the 
Japanese administration and the foreign moral and reli- 
gious forces are, for the most part, in hearty active co- 
operation for the welfare and uplift of the Korean 
people. With this state of things continuing, the present 
marvelous growth of missions in Korea is sure to ac- 
complish the highest good for all the parties chiefly in- 
terested. 

Three years ago there were not unreasonably grave 
fears expressed that the rapid immigration of Japanese 
settlers into the land would result in driving the weaker 
and less enterprising native race to the wall. But I then 
ventured to predict (see "In Korea with Marquis Ito," 
p. 45 if.) that the net increase in Japanese population in 
Korea for the next fifty years would not greatly exceed 
20,000 per annum, and that meantime the resources of 
the country would be so developed as easily to support, 
in far superior conditions of living, double the 10,000,000 
of its present population. Moreover, I am one of those 
who hold the opinion that, when the Korean is awakened 
and given a fair chance for securing his own economic, 
political, and social betterment, he will show himself 
quite capable of competing favorably with the Japanese. 
The statistics of the last three years have for this brief 
period verified the prediction. They show that, besides 
the Chinese, there are more Americans residing in Korea 
than subjects of any other foreign country. 

In no other way has the kindly and far-seeing wis- 
dom of Prince Ito been more conspicuously shown than 
in his painstaking efforts to provide for the future Korea 
a competent and well-trained and morally well-disposed 
sovereign. If the present Crown Prince had been left 
to the corrupting influences of the eunuchs and palace 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 433 

women surrounding him, there is scanty reason to doubt 
that he would have become, like his ancestors, physically 
impotent and morally degenerate. Since he was pro- 
claimed the heir-apparent to the throne, the Prince has 
done for him all that any father could under the cir- 
cumstances do for his own son. During his Residency- 
Generalship he accepted the office of tutor, and secured 
with great difficulty the consent of the boy's parents 
and of the Korean Government to have his young pupil 
taken to Japan for an education befitting his position 
and responsibilities in the future. His parents, the ex- 
Emperor and Lady Om, who at first appeared to suspect 
some plan for the virtual imprisonment if not the murder 
of their son, are now quite reconciled and greatly gratified 
with the proofs they constantly receive of the young 
man's physical and mental advancement. On his res- 
ignation of his position in Korea, Prince Ito resigned 
also his position as guardian of the Korean Crown 
Prince. But at the urgent request of the latter's par- 
ents, and by command of his own Emperor, Ito consented 
to continue the charge under another name. There is, 
therefore, every prospect possible so far ahead that 
Japan will redeem its promise to secure and protect the 
Imperial House of Korea in the best of all ways pos- 
sible. This way there, as everywhere, is the way of 
making worthy to rule, by encouraging and compelling 
the rulers to rule worthily. 

QPerhaps the most difficult problem of all those still 
confronting the Japanese administration in Korea, is 
the winning of the good-will of the Koreans themselves. 
For those who persist in insurrection, in arson, robbery, 
and murder, as well of their peaceful fellow countrymen 
as of the officials of the Government, I suppose only one 
way of treatment is possible. But happily, the insur- 
rection seems at present nearly to have spent its force. 



434 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

The people will not only accept the Japanese adminis- 
tration, but will welcome it, so soon and so far as they 
find that it affords them improved conditions for their 
daily living. The children, who will play together, work 
together, teach and be taught together, are not likely to 
continue to hate each other. Indeed, there is no little 
evidence that the feelings of scorn on the one hand, and 
of bitterness on the other hand, are already abating. In- 
deed, in some places they had already almost vanished 
when I was in Korea, To this desirable result it is the 
prime business and imperative duty of the foreign Chris- 
tian missionaries to bend all their energies. And if in 
the long run they cannot make a notable contribution to 
this result, they will in my judgment fail of proving 
their right to support from the home-lands. Above all 
is it necessary for all well-wishers of the people to dis- 
courage the newly revivified practice of assassination, 
which, if continued, will inevitably result in the destruc- 
tion of the nationality of Korea. 

All that has thus far been done by the Japanese ad- 
ministration for reform and betterment of economic, 
judicial, and educational conditions among the people of 
its protectorate, Korea, is indeed only a beginning. But 
I submit that, considering the brevity of the time and 
the magnitude of the difficulties involved, it is a notable 
and even a praiseworthy beginning. Nations in the 
prophetic future may be born in a day ; but nations that 
have degenerated through centuries of corruption and 
misrule, are not at present to be redeemed in a day, and 
in both cases it must be remembered that the " Day of 
the Lord " is as a thousand years. In a recent conversa- 
tion. Admiral Uriu assured me that he and the other 
men most prominent in navy and army circles were 
heartily in accord with the policy of the late Resident- 
General for the peaceful development and permanent 



JAPANESE ADMINISTRATION IN KOREA 435 

friendship of Korea. A yet more recent communication 
prepared by order of Prince Ito, brings the assurance 
that Viscount Sone, who succeeded to the position of 
Resident-General, is following the same line of policy. 
It seems to me fair, then, to condone any failures in the 
past, to credit present successes, and to look into the 
future with hope, for the Japanese administration of 
Korea. "^ 



XXII 

RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN KOREA 

riT has been said by certain travelers that Korea is a 
country without a religion. Whether or not this is true 
depends upon how one defines the word. But without 
attempting to discuss the question as to what should 
properly be called religion, let us consider those systems 
which have been practiced by the Koreans, and which 
are expressions of their spiritual nature, whether those 
systems are rational or superstitious. 

Previous to the entrance of Christianity three forms 
of religion had become rooted in Korea, Shamanism, 
Buddhism and Confucianism. The supremacy of each 
marked a distinct change in the national life. Never- 
theless the religious changes did not produce eradication 
of the forms previously existing. Buddhism did not 
drive out Shamanism, nor did Confucianism drive out 
Buddhism. While holding to much of the old, the peo- 
ple adopted the new, and so we find to-day the three 
systems living together. A man may even practice all 
three in his own individual life. It has been well 
pointed out that " a Korean will be a Confucianist when 
in society, a Buddhist when he philosophizes, and a 
Spirit Worshiper when he is in trouble." 

The Korean may also be called a theist in addition to 
his other faiths, for there are evidences of his belief 
in an overruling Supreme Being, although not clothed 
with the perfections which we ascribe to God. He is 
not a poly theist though he believes in the existence of 

437 



438 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

countless demons. So far as he is a theist, he is a mono- 
theist. He calls the great, overruling being Hananim, 
which corresponds to the Chinese " Lord of Heaven," 
and the Chinese written character for it in use in Korea 
is made up of marks which mean great and one. The 
worship of this Being is left mainly to the Emperor, who 
appeals to him in times of national distress, such as 
famine and pestilence. The name ascribed to him, 
Hananim, has been adopted by the Protestant mission- 
aries for God, and is so translated in the Korean Bible 
and Christian literature. 

From earliest times sacrifice has been common among 
the Koreans. On the top of Mari Mountain in the 
Island of Kangwha there is a stone platform called 
" Tangun's Altar." Tangun, the first king of the 
ancient tribes in Korea, offered sacrifice there and built 
an altar for the purpose in 2265 B.C., according to the 
most authentic records. At the time of the Manchu in- 
vasion in 1637 A.D., the king ordered a great sacrifice 
in behalf of the spirits of the Koreans whom the Man- 
chus killed. We find also records of an annual sacrifice 
in behalf of the country and in the latter part of the 
eighteenth century orders were issued as to where this 
sacrifice should be made. If the dates recorded are cor- 
rect, we are able to look to-day on an altar which was 
erected in Korea near the time of Noah. Another 
curious fact, which, however, we are unable to relate 
directly to their religion, is that the Koreans have 
legends concerning a great flood which overspread the 
land, and an ark. To the south of the city of Taiku the 
Koreans point out the mountain peak where the ark is 
supposed to have rested. 

Buddhism was introduced into Korea in 372 a.d. 
from China, and at once became popular because 
patronized by royalty; soon after that, priests were in- 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN KOREA 439 

vited to come from China to teach it. It may be said 
to have been the state rehgion for 1000 years. Profes- 
sor H. B. Hulbert, in his " History of Korea," writes : 
" In 1065, the king's son cut his hair and became a 
Buddhist monk. A law was passed forbidding the kill- 
ing of any animals for a period of three full years. A 
monastery was built in the capital, consisting of 2,800 
kan each eight feet square. This gave a floor space of 
nearly 180,000 square feet, the equivalent of a building 
one-third of a mile long and one hundred feet wide. It 
required twelve years to complete it. A great feast 
lasting five days marked its opening, at which thousands 
of monks from all over the country participated. There 
was a magnificent awning of pure silk which formed a 
covered passageway from the palace to the monastery, 
in which was a pagoda on which one hundred and forty 
pounds of gold and four hundred and twenty-seven 
pounds of silver were lavished." Large tracts of land 
were given to the Buddhist monasteries, many of which 
remain in their possession at the present time. 

About 1 100 A.D. Buddhism came into conflict with 
Confucianism, because of the corruption of the former 
and the superior ethical teachings of the latter. The re- 
sult was that Buddhism was disestablished at the begin- 
ning of the present dynasty in 1392. To-day it would 
be difficult for the ordinary traveler to find the remains 
of Buddhism. 1 He must go ofif the beaten line of travel, 
for there he will see no temples, no shrines, nothing to 
remind him of that ancient system which for a thousand 
years swayed the minds and hearts of the people. When 
he has learned to distinguish the types of dress, he will 
occasionally recognize Buddhist priests on the streets of 
the cities, for they are now allowed to enter, although in 
1392 they were forbidden. There are some ancient 
temples among the hills where Buddhist priests can be 



440 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

found performing the mystic rites, but the temples are 
not frequented by the people. 

Confucianism dominates the mind of Korea and may 
be called the foundation on which society there is reared. 
Strictly speaking, this system can scarcely be called a 
reHgion, yet it should be considered, for it influences the 
moral and superstitious life of the people. It entered 
Korea from China some time after the entrance of 
Buddhism and affects all departments of life from the 
cradle to the grave. The five laws of society on which 
it rests are: the relations between king and subject, 
father and son, husband and wife, older and younger, 
and friends. There are also five virtues, love, righteous- 
ness, ceremony, knowledge and faith, and five original 
elements, metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Dr. Gale 
says, " These five laws, five virtues and five elements con- 
stitute the Korean world of thought." Confucianism 
has many noble sentiments, but it has hindered progress 
and caused national stagnation. Beneath it all is an- 
cestor-worship ; the spirits of departed ancestors must 
be worshiped for fear that harm will come to the family 
if it is omitted. The oldest male member of the family 
must perform this sacrificial rite ; hence the desire for a 
son in the family, and the origin of early marriage. The 
prolonged watching at graves has produced various 
forms of sickness; bodies long unburied have often 
caused most unsanitary conditions. Confucianism has 
debased woman in this life and consigned her soul to 
hell when she dies. The family resources have been ex- 
hausted for the sake of maintaining ancestor-worship. 
All these things have conspired to produce ideals and to 
demand conditions of life which hinder the full develop- 
ment of the individual and of the nation. 

Shamanism has been present from the earliest times. 
It is really demon- worship ; countless evil spirits are 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN KOREA 441 

everywhere, ready to injure and torment, but they rnay be 
appeased by sacrifice. The Shaman is of two orders, the 
Pansu, who is the bHnd exorcist, and the Mutang, the 
female sorcerer. They belong to a low social rank, yet 
hold a very important position in the life of the nation. 
The difference between the powers of the two is that the 
Pansu is really master of the demons, and if they will 
not do his bidding voluntarily he can use force and com- 
pel them. The Mutang, on the other hand, has power 
only to placate the spirits and can get them to do her 
bidding only by offering them sufficient sacrifice. Fetiches, 
also, are common in Korea. The evil spirits are often 
supposed to be frightened away by grotesque figures 
placed on the roofs of buildings, by the hideous picture 
of a Chinese general on the door, or by other such means. 
South of the city of Taiku is a curious illustration of 
this superstition. From the South Mountain it is sup- 
posed that the fire spirits used to come to set fire to build- 
ings, so an ingenious device was contrived to keep 
them away. On one side of the road leading from the 
South Mountain was built an ice house and on the op- 
posite side was placed a huge stone turtle ; both of these 
are suggestive of water, and it is believed that the fire 
demons dare not come along that road on account of 
these two objects. 

I It is said that an attempt was made to introduce Roman 
Catholicism into Korea late in the sixteenth century at 
the time of the invasion of Korea by Japan under Hide- 
oshi; that Japanese Romanists were sent over, but that 
the attempt was not successful. According to native 
records Roman Catholicism first entered Korea in 1686, 
being introduced by foreigners. There is no definite in- 
formation in regard to this and we must date the begin- 
ning of the Roman Catholic propaganda from late in the 
eighteenth century when certain Koreans who came in 



442 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

contact with it in Peking attempted to introduce it. It 
was bitterly opposed and both Korean and French Cath- 
olic priests who came later were killed. In 1837, there 
are said to have been 9,000 Roman Catholics in Korea. 
In 1839, came a general persecution when many were 
killed, including three French priests. One reason why 
this faith was bitterly opposed was that the priests at- 
tempted to gain temporal power, and to have Western 
nations send armies to open Korea. They have never 
translated the Bible for the people. 

The work which Protestant Christianity undertook 
was to supplant fear with love and to make intelligent 
faith take the place of superstition. We shall be able to 
judge how well it has begun its work as we consider 
what it has already done. 

Until 1882, when Western nations began to make 
treaties with them, the Koreans were a hermit nation, and 
the political, social and religious Systems under which 
they lived gave no proper incentive for development. 
The history of their achievements, however, will show 
that there is much intellectual acumen among them, and 
that when the proper incentive is put before them they 
manifest remarkable mental ability. We might mention 
in passing some of the facts in their later history which 
show what they have accomplished. In 1592 the Koreans 
built a suspension bridge across the Imchin river, using 
for cables fifteen heavy strands of a tough fibrous vine 
twisted together and anchored securely at the ends. 
Branches and earth were used to make the roadway, and 
across this bridge their allies, the Chinese army, passed. 
In the same year they devised a bomb j,nd mortar which 
was known as the " flying thunderbolt " ; and the great 
Admiral Sun Sin invented an iron-clad war vessel which 
did great damage to the invading Japanese fleet. This 
vessel was built in the form of a tortoise. The head was 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN KOREA 443 

used for ramming, and certain iron scales on the back 
could be lifted for the purpose of shooting fare arrows. 

The Koreans used movable printing type before the 
days of Gutenberg and more than 400 years ago one of 
their wise emperors caused to be invented an alphabet 
of twenty-five simple characters with which they write 
phonetically. This is founded on the Chinese seal and 
the ancient Tibetan characters taken from the Sanscrit. 
Some of the finest brass-work in the world is now made 
in Korea. Wherever Koreans are employed by Western- 
ers to-day, in their own country, in Hawaii, Mexico, 
Yucatan, the United States, they are found to be superior 
workmen. The national calamity which has overtaken 
Korea is giving an opportunity for the young men espe- 
cially to show their ability, and it may be safely said that 
no nation in the Far East shows greater native talent or 
gives promise of greater future usefulness to the world 
according to its strength than Korea. 

Probably no nation in all the history of the Christian 
era has accepted Christianity more rapidly than Korea. 
Extensively it has overspread the entire country within 
a quarter of a century, so that the " Jesus Church " and 
the " Jesus Doctrine " are common topics of conversa- 
tion. There is no way to adequately explain the rapid 
progress of the Christian Church in Korea on political 
or psychological grounds. Many things have conspired 
to cause her old governmental and religious foundations 
to crumble, but when we have considered them all, we 
must still say that her acceptance of Christianity is be- 
yond human understanding.'TCertain it is that the move- 
ment of God in Korea haS^made the Church of Christ 
realize that He is the same yesterday, to-day, and for- 
ever, and that the same power which wrought in the lives 
of the early apostles is working to-day to accomplish His 
will in the earth. 



444 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

In 1882 America secured the first treaty which Korea 
made with any Western nation, and the treaty ports be- 
gan to open. Before that time foreigners were not only 
unwelcome, but it was dangerous for them to try to enter 
Korea. Two years afterwards, in 1884, the Presbyterian 
Board of Foreign Missions sent Dr. Horace N. Allen, 
an American physican, to Seoul as the first Protestant 
missionary. He himself has said that he was given the 
task of attempting to open Korea to Christianity at the 
point of a physician's lancet. The work was well done, 
and to-day the missionary is not only admitted, but Korea 
is beseeching America to send many more to teach them 
how their land may be made Christian. From the time 
Dr. Allen wen*- to Korea until the present there has never 
been any attempt on the part of the Korean Government 
or the Korean people to take the life of a foreign mis- 
sionary, a Western business man or a diplomat. 

If we were able to take some elevated viewpoint 
where we could see the whole country spread out before 
us and could count the banners of the Cross which fly 
every Sabbath Day from the flag-masts in front of every 
church — a red cross on a white ground — we should 
have to count on and on until we had numbered at least 
1,500. We should find these places of worship scattered 
throughout the thirteen provinces which comprise the 
entire land, north, south, east and west, and we should 
find beneath these hundreds of banners, at least 150,000, 
and possibly as many as 200,000, believers of the true 
God. We should find groups small and large, some a 
mere handful, gathered in a man's house, others in 
churches accommodating fifty, one hundred, five hundred, 
one thousand, and one thousand five hundred. So mar- 
velously have the Christians multiplied within half a 
dozen years that many of the church buildings are far too 
small and the worshipers meet in sections. 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN KOREA 445 

This is true even of the large church in Ping-yang, 
which seats more than 1,500 people. The building is well 
filled by women at one hour and by men at another hour. 
Eighteen years ago when Rev. S. A. Moffett went to that 
city to begin missionary work the natives pelted him with 
stones. At the time of the Chino- Japanese War, in 
1894, he had to flee from the city. After the war he re- 
turned and was able in the course of a year or so to have 
a Sunday congregation of about a dozen people meeting 
in the home of one of the believers. It was my privilege to 
visit the city about ten years later and on Sabbath morn- 
ing to worship in the Korean church where more than 
fifteen hundred people were gathered together. In an- 
other part of the city was a church accommodating about 
one thousand. Since that time three other churches have 
been built within the city walls, all of which are filled 
to overflowing. Christianity has been a transforming 
power in that city. Magistrates have testified that what 
was once one of the wickedest cities in that part of the 
world has become wonderfully changed. Even Sunday 
is observed and many places of business are closed on 
that day. 

In the northern part of Korea is a little village of three 
thousand people who live in straw-thatched houses hidden 
away among the hills. Eight years ago there were but 
few Christians in that region when missionaries went to 
make their homes there. It was a journey of three days 
overland from the city of Ping-yang, a trip to be taken 
by pack pony, on foot, or in a sedan chair. Those mis- 
sionaries did what people in America often facetiously 
refer to as " burying oneself among the heathen." About 
four years afterwards it was my privilege to visit the 
village. On Sunday morning in a low Korean building 
I found assembled to worship God not less than five 
hundred men, with no room for the women. After the 



446 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

men had gone away the women, who had been waiting 
their turn, came in and filled the building again. To-day 
in that village is a church building built and largely paid 
for by the Koreans which seats some fifteen hundred 
people. It is filled every Sabbath day. Twelve days 
overland from that station is Kang Kai, where missionary 
work has but recently been begun. There is already a 
congregation of some seven hundred people, and they 
have planned a church building which when completed 
will seat two thousand. 

Incidents like the above might be multiplied showing 
that all over the country the Koreans are attending 
church in large numbers. It is no wonder that Mr. John 
R. Mott, after his visit there some two years ago, said 
that he believed that " If America would take advantage 
of the present opportunity, Korea, one of the last nations 
of the earth to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, would of 
all non-Christian nations be the first to become Chris- 
tian." It seems to us who have been working there that 
if the present rate of increase continues, another quarter 
of a century will see the old religious systems demolished 
and Korea a Christian nation. 

In educational lines there has also been a remarkable 
development. Until about a dozen years ago the old 
Chinese system of schools and examinations prevailed. 
That has now been abolished and everywhere modern 
schools are springing up with wonderful rapidity. About 
ten years ago our missions reported that there was " the 
nucleus of a boys' academy at Ping-yang, and that 
the desire for an education is coming." The prophecy 
has been very rapidly fulfilled. The Boys' Academy 
now numbers some four hundred, and several academies 
for boys and girls have been started in other parts of the 
country. The figures of our own mission show that in 
1902 we had about 1,000 pupils in our schools. The 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN KOREA 447 

number increased by about 1,000 each year for four years, 
when we had some 4,000 students, in 206 schools. A 
year later, June, 1907, we reported 344 schools with over 
7,500 pupils and after another twelve months 457 schools 
and over 12,000 pupils. These schools were all Christian 
and with the exception of a very few were entirely sup- 
ported by the Christian people that their children might 
be given the privileges of a modern education. Other 
missions report a similar condition. A desire for knowl- 
edge is permeating the whole nation ; they realize that 
their only hope of being able to take their place in the 
world's work, now that their country has been brought 
out of its seclusion, is in becoming educated along mod- 
ern lines. 

Thus far our mission educational work has been chiefly 
from the primary up through the high school grades, but 
we have begun college work and have introduced indus- 
trial departments in some of our academies. For the ed- 
ucation of the native ministry both the Methodists and 
Presbyterians have started Bible and theological schools, 
with a constantly increasing number of students in at- 
tendance. 

Medical education has also been begun. There are 
several hospitals in charge of American physicians in 
connection with the several stations, and each doctor 
has an average of something like one thousand patients 
a month to care for. In each one of the hospitals Ko- 
rean young men are in training. A year ago Dr. Avison 
of the Severance hospital in Seoul was able to rejoice in 
the fruits of the instruction which he had been carrying 
on for years when seven young men were graduated in 
medicine. Their diplomas subsequently received the of- 
ficial seal of the government of Korea and later were 
also approved in Japan. Thus a beginning has been 
made in providing Korea with Christian physicians. 



448 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

Not only is the extensive side of the work of great in- 
terest, but the intensive side is quite as remarkable. The 
Koreans are proving themselves to be possessed of vital 
Christianity. Their eagerness to know what the Bible 
teaches often puts Western Christians to shame. The 
sale of the Scriptures has been so great that it has been 
impossible to provide enough copies to supply the demand. 
When a man makes profession of his faith in Christ he 
feels that he must own a Bible and purchases one from 
the book store or colporteur. For several months the 
supply of the Scriptures had been exhausted, and when a 
new edition of 20,000 was ordered they had all been 
spoken for before a word was printed, and it was found 
that the edition would be far too small to meet the de- 
mand. The entire New Testament and several books 
of the Old have been translated into the native character, 
and also into a mixed character composed of Chinese and 
Korean. If one could see the desire for Bible study he 
would realize that there is a great famine in Korea, a 
famine for the Bread of Life, the Word of God. 

At the time of the Korean New Year it is our custom 
to hold men's Bible institutes for about ten days, at the 
several station centers where the missionaries reside. 
The Koreans come from all over the provinces, often 
walking long distances, and many of them bringing their 
rice with them, for we do not support them during the 
classes. In Fusan, the southern port, two years ago 
about 300 men came to the Bible institute ; last year about 
500. In Taiku, seventy-five miles farther north, two 
years ago the attendance was about 500; the next year 
over 700. In Ping-yang, the city in the north which 
has been so wonderfully transformed, about 1,000 men 
have come from the country districts every year. At Syen 
Chyun, where eight years ago the missionaries might be 
said to have " buried themselves among the heathen," 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN KOREA 449 

last year some 1,200 men attended the institute, many 
of them walking eleven or twelve days to get there and 
walking back the same distance in order to spend about 
ten days studying the Bible with the missionaries. One 
Korean exclaimed: "I am hungry; I want to be fed." 
He did not mean he had no rice, but that he was hungry 
for the Word of God. He lived at a considerable distance 
from where the institute was held, in a small village where 
there was a little group of Christians. They had no 
regular pastor and could have the assistance of the mis- 
sionary only a few times during the year as he itinerated 
through his large district, several thousand square miles 
in extent. That man had been appointed by the mission- 
ary as the leader of that congregation. Whenever they 
met for worship, he would instruct them in the Scrip- 
tures as best he could, and lead them in their devotions. 
For a whole year he had been doing that until he felt 
that he had no more to give them. Then with eager ex- 
pectancy he came to the annual Bible institute to feast 
his hungry soul at the table of the Lord on the Bread of 
Life as it should be broken by the missionaries. After 
a few days' instruction he would go back to his village 
and the next New Year's attend another institute, for he 
must remain the leader of the congregation, since they 
had no native pastor. Such is the condition in hundreds 
of places throughout the land. The work has grown so 
rapidly that native preachers and well-qualified leaders 
could not be prepared rapidly enough to supply the need. 
At the close of a meeting in a small country church 
one of the Korean Christians came to me with this re- 
quest : " Pastor, we do not know much here and our 
faith is small. Will you not please come and stay with 
us a long time and teach us the Bible? We will come 
every day and every night as long as you are here. Please 
come soon and .stay long." That request could not at 



450 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

that time be granted, but the church has continued to 
grow and has been compelled to enlarge its house of wor- 
ship. We are not surprised at this when we know that 
at the time the request was made the Christians in that 
village had been meeting at the church building for Bible 
study and prayer among themselves every night for two 
whole years. Similar instances can be multiplied to show 
that all through the country there is a desire to know the 
things which God has revealed in His word. 

The Koreans feel that it is not enough merely to be- 
lieve in Jesus as Saviour of the world, but they must 
propagate their faith, and so we find them going every- 
where " Doing the Doctrine," as they express it, and 
preaching. This alone will explain the rapid and exten- 
sive growth of the church in that country. It has been 
a common practice in recent years at the time of our 
men's annual Bible institutes to take up subscriptions of 
service. The men write on a piece of paper their names 
and the number of days that they will spend during the 
coming year preaching directly to the heathen. So there 
has been a great service done by laymen. 

The work has now become so extensive that the mis- 
sionary has more than he can do to properly look after 
the needs of the Christians, to visit and instruct the 
churches from time to time, and to train and instruct 
the leaders. The churches spring up spontaneously, or 
rather as a result of the evangelizing efforts of the native 
Christians. A man asked me if I would not go over seven 
miles to a village where there was a new group of Chris- 
tians. They had been meeting together for two months 
and now had sent a request that the missionary visit 
them. It was the first knowledge I had that there were 
Christians in that village, though it was in my territory. 
A man had heard the Gospel story from his fellow Ko- 
reans in the capital city, had bought a New Testament, 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN KOREA 451 

read it and decided to be a Christian. He gathered his 
friends together, as many as could come, and there be- 
sfan a church in his own home. Most of the churches in 
Korea now spring up after that fashion. 

One of the clear teachings of the Bible is that Chris- 
tians should be people of prayer. This is carried out by 
the Koreans. They seem to be coming into the Kingdom 
with a simple childlike faith. They call God, Father, and 
believe that He will do what He has promised. In re- 
sponse to prayer continued persistently through several 
months, God fulfilled His promise and poured out His 
Holy Spirit in such mighty power some two years ago, 
that there was a revival which swept all over the country 
and which will take its place in the history of the Chris- 
tian Church along with such great movements as the re- 
cent revival in Wales. It seemed in many respects like a 
repetition of the coming of God's Holy Spirit on the day 
of Pentecost, when confession of sin and restitution were 
made, lives were changed and the church was purified. 
One of my native helpers told me that under the power of 
God's Holy Spirit, the Koreans confessed sins, which even 
the most extreme torture of the magistrates would not 
have been able to wring from them. We may speculate 
as we will in regard to such a movement, but certain it 
is that the fact of changed lives shows that God was 
working in an unusual manner to produce righteousness 
in the nation. 

The Korean Church is self-supporting. In connection 
with my own mission we have at the present time well on 
to one thousand congregations all supported by the na- 
tive Christians. We have encouraged them to build 
their own church buildings and in probably not more than 
a dozen cases have we allowed any money from America 
to be used for the erection of a Korean church, and then 
the total amount granted in any case has not exceeded 



452 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

one-third the original cost of the building. In several in- 
stances this money has afterwards been paid back to the 
mission by the native Christians. The Korean Church 
has also sent out and supports a number of native evange- 
lists, 

A great deal has been said about " rice Christians," a 
term used by those who assert that it is necessary to of- 
fer some material gain to the heathen in order to induce 
them to become Christians. Enough has been said to 
show that this is not true in Korea, and that it would be 
absolutely impossible for us to offer any such inducement 
to so many thousands of people. The following incident 
is illustrative of the pleasure which the Koreans have in 
giving of their means : At the time the Korean Presby- 
terian Church was organized in September, 1907, the 
church decided that it would at the very beginning of its 
existence undertake missionary work. It selected as its 
mission field the large island of Quelpart lying off the 
southern coast of Korea, where there were 100,000 Ko- 
reans at that time unevangelized. A subscription was 
taken up to send out a native pastor and his family, and 
when the offering was counted it was found to be three 
times as much as was needed, so they determined to send 
three men with their families, which was done. Among 
those who contributed were three brothers who were rice 
farmers. They had given a tithe of their income already 
to the church, but wanted to add for this purpose what 
they called " a freewill offering." Not having any ready 
money they decided, after talking the matter over to- 
gether, to sell their rice crop and buy millet and eat that 
during the coming year. Now millet is not so good a 
food as rice, but by the transaction they were able to save 
and add to the Lord's treasury six dollars, reckoned in 
American money. This is not an unusual occurrence 
showing the self-sacrificing spirit of many Christians in 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN KOREA 453 

Korea, but is one which can be dupHcated again and 
again. The Korean Church seems to be determined that 
Korea shall be Christian. A fact illustrative of this is 
as follows : Mission work has recently been begun in the 
city of Kang Kai, which is twelve days overland by pack 
pony from the nearest station in the northern part of 
Korea. There is already a large congregation there 
which is increasing very rapidly. So simple is the faith 
of the people that the missionary writes that they have no 
other expectation than that the whole city of 10,000 will 
soon become Christian. 

Korea probably offers as good an opportunity as any 
mission field in the world for the study of the foreign mis- 
sionary enterprise. The ultimate aim of foreign mis- 
sions as carried on by the church to-day is to establish 
throughout the world a self-supporting, self-propagating, 
self-controlling, indigenous church. The first three prin- 
ciples we have already found illustrated in Korea. Every 
nation must eventually evangelize its own people. It is 
not the purpose of the foreign missionary enterprise to 
place Americans as pastors over the churches in foreign 
lands. The missionary is a superintendent of various 
forms of work, educational, evangelistic, medical and lit- 
erary. He is teaching them the principles of the Chris- 
tian religion and training native leaders who shall in turn 
be preachers and leaders of others. The unique condi- 
tion in Korea has made it possible early in the history of 
Christian work there to establish a church along the lines 
mentioned. It is not the hope to establish an American 
Church in Korea. The Oriental and Occidental minds 
and modes of life are very different. The basic principles 
of Christianity are the same. The way in which the 
church shall express those principles and work them out 
in practical life will differ in different lands. Hence 
the desire to establish a church in Korea which, while 



454 CHINA AND THE FAR EAST 

it shall be Christian, shall be so adapted as to accomplish 
the work of Christianizing the whole land and of giving 
the people the opportunity to express themselves in work 
and in worship in a manner best suited to their own ideals 
and modes of thought. 

Up to this time the Methodist and Presbyterian 
Churches have been doing nearly all the work in Korea. 
The Northern and Southern Methodist Churches in the 
United States, the Northern and Southern Presbyterian 
Churches in the United States, the Australian and Cana- 
dian Presbyterian Churches, together with the Society for 
the Propagation of the Gospel of the Angelican Church, 
are the missionary societies at present represented in 
Korea. It has been the hope that eventually there can be 
one Church of Christ in that land. There are at present 
co-operation and certain forms of union. All the Pres- 
byterian Churches have united in one presbytery. The 
Methodists and Presbyterians have united in educational 
work in the city of Ping-yang, and the physicians in the 
hospitals of both missions there are co-operating in their 
work. A union hymnal has been published. A religious 
newspaper in the native language, The Christian News, 
and The Korea Field, which gives reports in English 
of the work being done, Bible translation and the prepar- 
ation of Sabbath-school lesson helps, are all done by 
joint committees of Presbyterians and Methodists. 

The influence of Christianity upon Korea cannot be 
estimated. It has been a constructive force, changing the 
ideals of the people and giving them moral fiber. It has 
influenced all classes of society, rich and poor, high and 
low, ignorant and educated. Without doubt it has helped 
to give a new feeling of national unity. It has been 
difficult for the missionaries to keep the church at all 
times free from political entanglements, but it has been 
the policy so to do. We have said to the Koreans that 



RELIGIOUS CONDITIONS IN KOREA 455 

it is not our business to determine whether they shall 
rule themselves or whether they shall be controlled by 
another nation, but that we are attempting to establish 
the Kingdom of God which shall rule within their hearts. 
In spite of this refusal to interfere with political affairs 
they have continued to come to the church in increasing 
numbers, a fact which shows that the Christian Church 
is being established on the right foundation. Magistrates 
have testified that where the church has entered, cities 
and villages have been transformed. Without doubt 
even Japan has felt the importance of sending to Korea 
men who are in sympathy with this great religious move- 
ment. One of the judges recently sent by Japan to Korea 
is an elder in a Japanese Presbyterian Church and regu- 
larly attends church in the city of Seoul. Other men 
who stand for Christian principles have also been sent 
to assist in working out Korea's destiny. Korea is now 
entering upon a new era. What it shall be politically no 
one can foretell, but if the history of the Christian Church 
continues making progress as it has within the past 
quarter of a century, and especially within the past ten 
years, it is safe to prophesy that Korea will become a 
Christian nation. 



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